Miracles do happen.
Surrounded by the children he helped save and their parents, Poplar Bluff pediatrician Dr. Joseph Fernando recalled three babies born with unusual complications that became his miracles.
With a career spanning more than 35 years, Dr. Joseph Fernando has practiced medicine worldwide, treating patients in Canada, the United States and his home country of Sri Lanka.
For nearly 20 of those years, Fernando has served the children of Poplar Bluff with his dedicated pediatric skills. Though he is experienced in other fields such as surgery, obstetrics/gynecology and family medicine, his true passion lies in caring for newborns.
"While I do care for and value my older patients, as it is a joy to watch them grow and learn," Fernando said. "My prime joy is caring for newborns, especially when they are ill."
While working on-call at Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center, Fernando recently met three separate families whose newborns needed extensive emergency life-saving treatment.
Fernando, along with PBRMC's nursery nursing staff, provided initial resuscitations that saved each infant from a potentially poor quality of life. Each baby was then transferred to St. Louis Children's Hospital where they received specialized care.
The neonates were each the first-born to their families, with individual complications which were extremely uncommon, Fernando said. Today, all three are growing, learning and thriving, without any life-altering side effects.
"All of these babies are miraculous children because they are growing healthy and similar to a child born without any complications," he said.
The families of these tiny miracles volunteered to share their stories with the community in an effort to remind folks that every once in a while, good things do happen.
Eli Bacca
In May 2016, Katie Reeves and David Bacca were told their newborn wouldn't survive. It was the most difficult moment of their lives, they said. But now, nearly a year later, Baby Eli snuggles on his mommy's lap while his daddy gazes at him adoringly.
"He's really a miracle, our little miracle," Reeves said.
Eli was born at 39 weeks, nearly full term. Reeves said she had a great pregnancy, very healthy, and until her labor everything had gone well.
"With every contraction I'd have, his heart rate would fall," Reeves said. "When he was finally born, he had a subgaleal hemorrhage which caused severe swelling to his head."
According to Fernando, Baby Eli was bleeding just outside his scalp bone. The newborn also suffered a collapsed lung.
"The nurses called me around 3 a.m. and said they couldn't hear his heartbeat," Fernando said. "He'd lost so much blood he was in shock. We had to get his blood pressure up. In fact, the baby had lost approximately 50 percent of the blood around his scalp bone. His chance of survival was very dismal and most babies die from this condition."
After many medications, intubation chest tube placement and multiple blood transfusions, Baby Eli, who wasn't supposed to make it was stabalized enough to be transferred to St. Louis, where he spent more than two months in the hospital's neo-intensive care unit and subsequently developed acute renal failure.
"At one point, he went four days without producing urine," said Reeves, who as a result, administers dialysis to her infant every night at home while he sleeps. Eli will eventually undergo a kidney transplant.
"He can have a transplant at 25 pounds, and he's 21 pounds now," Reeves said. "Me and dad are going to get tested to see if we can give him one of ours when it's time."
While Eli's parents prepare for the impending surgery, they can't help but beam over their little boy.
"When we thought we were going to lose him, it was the worst feeling you can imagine," Bacca said. "Then, when Dr. Fernando told us he was going to make it, that gave us so much hope."
Reeves said traveling to St. Louis for doctors appointments and giving her son dialysis treatment has become their "new normal," but she's thankful Baby Eli is on the road to recovery.
"He's really come a long way and he's doing so good," she said. "We still have the transplant to get through, so we still have quite a road ahead of us, but it's definitely worth it."
Kye Lloyd
Seven-month old Kye Lloyd came into the world in August 2016. Born at 24 weeks gestation, the premie weighed merely 1 pound 15 ounces and his eyes were closed at birth.
"We didn't really know what was going on," said his mother, Olivia Lloyd. "My labor was so abrupt. We were just at home. We'd finished putting up our new TV and then I started feeling pain."
Baby Kye had decided he was ready to be born and doctors weren't able to stop the labor.
According to Fernando, the infant was resuscitated using a effective ventilatory support and given several medications to keep him alive. With the initial concerns addressed, Fernando sent Baby Kye to St. Louis where he could get the specialized treatment he needed for one so small.
"There was really no reason why I went into labor so early," Lloyd said. "That was hard for me. I felt like I'd done something wrong."
Aside from the effects of such a premature birth, the baby had no other illnesses. However, the obstacles he needed to overcome were significant.
Learning to breath, learning to eat, growing to an acceptable weight and opening his eyes were just a few hurdles he had to clear before going home. Baby Kye essentially just needed more time to grow.
Lloyd and her husband Dustin said the hardest part about their situation was having to watch their newborn from a distance without being able to help him.
"We couldn't take him home. We couldn't really do anything. We just had to stand by and watch him," his mother said.
The young parents stayed in St. Louis for four months, the entire time their son was in the hospital.
"We stayed at the Ronald McDonald house from August through November," Lloyd said."We got to see his eyes open. It was special. Most people never get to experience that."
"It was very difficult," Dustin said. "We had the same routine every day in St. Louis. Adjusting to life here once we got back was hard, as well. But, he's perfect now. We're relieved to be home."
In a couple days, Kye will turn eight months old. He kicks his little legs and cuddles his parents, just like babies who didn't have such a difficult challenge so early in life. He may also be a little bit spoiled, according to his proud papa.
"He's very happy," Dustin said. "He smiles a lot and he gets whatever he wants."
Jaxon
McKinney
Three-year-old Jaxon McKinney was born in November 2013. His mother, Jackie McKinney, had a normal pregnancy and carried him to term. But when her newborn didn't take a single breath for the first 25 minutes of his life, what should have been the happiest moment of her life took an unexpected turn.
"When I first saw him, he was pale and blue," McKinney said. "What happened after that is all a blur for me."
According to Fernando, the infant was born with severe hypoxic insult to the brain, a condition stemming from a lack of oxygen to the brain and other organs, and received immediate intubation and ventilation support.
"This child required many medications to keep him alive," Fernando said. "His pH level was a 6.9 and was incompatible with life."
The baby also had a collapsed lung and persistent pulmonary hypertension, which means his body's blood circulation didn't change over to newborn from fetal circulation.
After Fernando and his team's drastic resuscitative efforts, Baby Jaxon was transferred to St. Louis, where he spent three weeks in children's hospital.
Jaxon's grandmother, Kristy Ward, was in the delivery room with her daughter. For Ward, the memories of her grandson's first moments are more clear. "When he was born, his little body was so limp," Ward said. "Dr. Fernando got there right away and was able to get him to breathe after 25 minutes."
Fernando said Jaxon was initially expected to have severe neurodevelopment complications, but today, the little boy miraculously, is fine.
"He's smart as a tack," Ward said. "He had a little bit of Erb's Palsy, but that's it."
Ward said her family pulled together to make sure Jaxon received enough stimulation to ensure he would catch up to other children his age. Ward said he now scores in the advanced range in tests targeted for his age group.
"He's been raised by an army," Ward said. "I don't think for the first year of his life there was ever a moment when someone wasn't talking to him or teaching him things. He's a happy, healthy little boy and I couldn't be more proud of him."