As a parent, you spend your whole life doing what you can to protect your child. You would do anything in your power to ensure that they never felt an ounce of sadness or pain. Unfortunately, that’s an impossible task to accomplish.
It’s easier to control what happens to your children when you’re the one in charge. You can stop them from running into the road while they’re playing. And you can teach them not to talk to strangers and to wear their helmet while riding their bike. But what do you do when their fate is entirely out of your hands?
Imagine losing control of what’s happening to your child at the most vulnerable time of their life: the moment they’re born. The birth of a child is supposed to be the happiest moment in a parent’s life. But what this mother went through wasn’t something to celebrate at first. In fact, she went through such a horrifying experience that it would make any parent’s heart stop.
As her newborn son was handed to her, he was dying. All she wanted to do was tell him how much she loved him and hold him tight. But as she was holding her son in her arms, a miracle happened. Doctors and everyone who has heard this story were shocked.
Giving birth to a child is a miracle in itself. But when there are severe complications when they’re born, and they survive despite the odds, a whole different type of miracle comes into play.
Kate and David Ogg are from Mooloolaba in Queensland, Australia. They were trying for a long time to have a baby, but they were having a difficult time conceiving. After three years of trying, Kate finally became pregnant with twins. They couldn’t be happier than when they found out they were having a boy and girl, until six months into the pregnancy.
Planning the birth of a child is an exciting process for any parent. You spend your free time choosing their nursery colors, buying their tiny socks, and picking out their name. Typically, you have nine months to plan everything out, but sometimes, the baby has a different plan in mind. And when that happens, there can be some extremely dangerous consequences.
Noah Clarey was born 14 weeks early. When he was born, he weighed only two pounds two ounces, and his chances of survival were very slim. In fact, just to keep the little one warm, doctors had to place his tiny body, that had a heart the size of a thumbnail, inside of a sandwich bag.
Noah went through a series of heart surgeries, and after only six months, he was finally able to breathe on his own. Noah is now a happy little boy, living with his mom, his dad, and his older sister. Noah’s story had a happy ending, but not all babies are so lucky…
Kate went into labor when she was only 26 weeks pregnant. There was no stopping the birth, but it was too early to deliver. She was immediately brought to the hospital, and delivered her twins shortly after. Two minutes after her baby boy was born, she gave birth to his sister. That’s when she realized something was wrong.
The delivery room is a pretty chaotic place. There are medical supplies all over the place, bright lights coming from every angle, people running in and out of the room, and yelling…there’s lots of yelling. Doctors are trained to handle any kind of emergency the best way that they can, but sometimes, things just get out of hand.
Tracey Hermanstorfer went to the hospital on Christmas Eve to give birth to her tiny creation. Her pregnancy had gone perfectly, so she wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen during the labor, but unfortunately, she couldn’t have been more wrong.
While she was giving birth to her son, Tracey went into cardiac arrest. When the doctors couldn’t bring her back, they did an emergency C-section right there in the delivery room. When the baby was born, he wasn’t breathing either. Things were looking grim for Tracey and her family.
As soon, as the baby was born, Tracey’s heartbeat came back, and she was immediately brought to surgery. After a little bit of time, the doctors were able to bring the baby back to life while he was in his father’s arms. What was beginning to look like a day of mourning, turned into a day of celebration and life. Tracey and her son were unbelievably fortunate to survive their ordeal, but would Kate be able to say the same thing?
When the doctors opened the sac and pulled out the little boy, he didn’t make any noise. But the little girl gave out a big cry. When the hospital staff began crowding around her son, Kate knew he wasn’t doing well. The baby boy wasn’t breathing and his heartbeat was almost untraceable. It was when the doctors stopped after 20 minutes that Kate knew she would be getting bad news.
A parent’s heart stops beating until they hear the sound of their newborn baby cry. Kate may have heard her daughter cry out, but all of her thoughts were consumed by the small baby boy who wasn’t breathing. Would she only be able to bring one of her twins home?
Shona Jeffrey was just shy of 23 weeks pregnant when she went into labor with her twins. As she was being rushed to the hospital, the emergency medics told Shona that the twins would be too little to save, and they even gave their condolences for Shona’s loss. Luckily, the doctors agreed to intervene if the babies were born alive.
One day after going into labor, Shona gave birth to her daughter, Dolly. Dolly was well enough to be treated, so the doctors went to work. Surprisingly, Shona’s labor stopped after that. She was informed that she could deliver the second baby at any moment, or she could go full term.
Five days later, Shona delivered her second child, Albert. He was also immediately sent to ICU for treatment. In a miraculous turn of events, both of the twins survived, even though they were born four months early and five days apart!
You see, these twins were born incredibly early, but they were able to beat all of the odds and survive. Their little lives are truly a miracle. Would Kate’s twins be able to do the same?
Kate and David were approached by the doctor and asked if they had chosen a name for their son. They told the doctor that his name was Jamie. Then they were told the news that there was nothing the doctors could do for Jamie. He had stopped breathing because his lungs were underdeveloped. They parents would soon lose their son. Kate asked one question.
What an earth-shattering moment it must have been for Kate to be told that the doctors had given up on her son. What can you do in a moment like that? Hang your head and cry? Kiss the baby that survived and try to move on with your life?
Kate knew that the doctors had done everything that they could for little Jamie. There was only one thing left for Kate to do, and it wasn’t something she was looking forward to.
The only thing Kate wanted was to hold her son and say goodbye.“I wanted to meet him, and to hold him, and for him to know us,” remembered Kate. “We’d resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to lose him, and we were just trying to make the most of those last, precious moments.” That’s when she saw a glimmer of hope.
Preparing to say goodbye to your child is the hardest thing someone could go through, but imagine having to plan a funeral for a baby that hasn’t even taken their first breath yet. Erika Jones experienced a parenting nightmare unlike any other
Erika was told the heartbreaking news that along with having Down Syndrome, her daughter also had a fatal brain tumor developing. She was instructed by the doctors that she needed to arrange her daughter’s funeral because there was no chance of survival. Fortunately, those doctors were wrong.
When Erika’s daughter Abigail was born, she was immediately brought to surgery to attempt to remove the tumor. The doctors weren’t sure that she would survive the surgery, but what did they have to lose if the baby was going to die without it anyways?
Dr. Alan Cohen from Boston Children’s Hospital performed the brain surgery on Abigail. After what felt like a lifetime of waiting, Erika was informed that her daughter survived! She was even able to bring Abigail home after only three days in the hospital! Doctors spend an incredible amount of time getting their degree, and while they should be trusted, they’re not always right.
Jamie began taking tiny breaths of air. Kate asked for everyone, except for her husband, to leave the room and she laid her son on her chest. “He was cold and I just wanted him to be warm,” said Kate. As she unwrapped Jamie, she asked her husband to take off his shirt and climb into the bed. She would fight for her son.
It’s a mother’s instinct to fight for their children until their last breath, and that’s exactly what she was going to do for Jamie. No matter what those doctors had to say, she was going to try everything she could to keep that little heart beating, and skin-to-skin contact was the best thing that Kate could do.
Scientists are proving that skin-to-skin contact, also known as Kangaroo Care, has an overwhelming amount of benefits for children, especially for babies that are born too early. The practice, which started in Bogota, Colombia, in 1979, has made its way into hospitals and nurseries all over the world.
The contact can decrease the amount of stress their little body is experiencing, as well as decrease the stress on the brain. It can help boost their immune system, as well as help them adapt to the world outside of the womb. Kate was definitely making the right decision for her little Jamie.
“We were trying to entice him to stay. We explained his name and that he had a twin that he had to look out for and how hard we tried to have him,” recalled Kate. All of a sudden, Jamie gasped and he opened his eyes. Kate felt him breathing, and then little Jamie grabbed onto his dad’s finger. That’s when they called for the doctors.
Even after the doctors told Kate that she needed to say goodbye to Jamie, she refused to give up. Explaining to him how important he was, and how loved he was by Kate and her husband, may have been just what he needed to hear to keep fighting.
Kate told the doctors about Jamie gasping, but they told her that they were just reflexes. They said that he was dying and needed to be taken away. Luckily, her maternal instincts kicked in and Kate took a few drops of breast milk and brought it to Jamie’s mouth. It was a miracle! The baby quickly sucked it up.
This just goes to show that you should never tell a mama bear that she needs to give up on her child. Kate knew that Jamie was breathing, and despite her doctor’s instructions, she did exactly what nature told her told her to do instead: feed her newborn baby.
If it wasn’t for Kate and David’s persistence, their little boy wouldn’t have survived. It’s truly amazing to see how powerful a parent’s love is for their child.
The doctors examined Jamie a little closer, and soon realize that Jamie was breathing better. They immediately began to help stabilize him. Kate and David were crying from happiness. “We feel so fortunate,” David said. “We’re the luckiest people in the world.” Even though he looked better, doctors were worried that Jamie would have health complications.
More often than not, when babies are born under strenuous circumstances they suffer from life-long complications. Depending on the circumstances, they may end up living with breathing issues, muscle development, as well as problems with mental development.
Jamie had just been through such a horrific ordeal that the doctors didn’t even think he was going to live, let alone walk away without having any kind of complications. But Jamie would prove time and time again that he was a fighter.
“The biggest concern they had was cerebral palsy because of the lack of oxygen,” Kate said about the doctors’ worries. But Jamie was just as healthy as his sister Emily was. Several years passed and Jamie hadn’t had any serious medical problems. And when their fifth birthday came around, Kate and David told the twins about their amazing birth.
Even though Jamie had been without oxygen for such a long period of time, there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. Kate and David are truly blessed to have been able to bring both of their babies home from the hospital.
They were surprised to find out that Emily would be the one most affected by their miraculous birth story. “Emily burst into tears, she was really upset and she kept hugging Jamie,” said Kate. Jamie coped with the news very well. But there is one person who loves the story so much, he wants to tell it to everyone.
Twins have an undeniably close bond – they did share a womb, after all. Emily must have felt so overwhelmed with emotion at the news because she couldn’t imagine life without her twin brother. But if Emily doesn’t like talking about what happened to Jamie, who was the one who liked telling their story of life?
Jamie and Emily have a younger brother named Charlie. Even though he is three years younger, Charlie loves to tell stories about when they were babies. “He’ll say: ‘When I was born I was fat and the twins were skinny. Jamie was also dead but now he is alive’,” explained Kate. It may be funny to Charlie, but David and Kate will never take that moment for granted.
Since the Ogg’s knew that Jamie’s survival was a miracle, they’ve decided to pay it forward. The family set up Jamie’s Gift, an online community that raises funds for sick and premature babies through the Miracle Babies Foundation. Sports events, like the one David recently trained for, are sometimes used for fundraising!
It’s a sad fact that premature babies die on a daily basis. But thanks to organizations like Jamie’s Gift, more research is being done to help increase the odds of a premature baby’s survival rate. Thanks to technology, and the generous contributions of kind people, astonishing advances are being made all of the time.
In an effort to raise funds and awareness for their organization, David signed up for an Ironman triathlon in Port Macquarie. “He will put his body through a grueling 3.8km swim, 180km bike, and a marathon,” said Kate. All that hard training is a small price for being able to have their miracle baby with them.
Kate and David are so grateful to have Jamie in their lives, that all they can do is try to give back. They’ve been in the position where they thought they had lost their child, so now they do everything they can to help parents that are in the same situation.
We take our hats off to you, Kate and David. You knew you had to keep fighting for your little one, so you did what you needed to do. And Jamie, you were born to survive, and even when the doctors told you to give up, you tried even harder! Keep it up and you’ll go so far in life!