Day one and two of Matthew's life
by
, 11-30-2014 at 12:44 PM (1670 Views)
Our precious little grandson, Matthew Marx was born on Thursday, 20/11/2014 at 5:30pm by c-section. The first indication that we had that there was anything wrong with him, was when my son came running up the stairs from the theatre to the waiting room to say that he was battling to breath and had been taken to ICU.
From thereon began our hours of stressing, waiting and praying.
I assumed that it was nothing critical and was in for a BIG surprise when the paediatrician and gynea came into my daughter-in-laws room much later that evening with his xrays to show and explain to us that he had a diaphragmatic hernia which would need to be repaired surgically.
The doctors said that surgery was critical and would have to be performed by a specialist paediatric surgeon and they recommended several from Sandton/Sunninghill (about 40kms from where we were in Benoni).
Friday morning brought about new challenges as Matthew's body began to bloat up from air around his lungs and a decision was made at lunchtime to arrange to have him airlifted to the Parklane Clinic (30kms away). This had its own challenges as by the time the helicopter and paramedic doctor arrived the weather was closing in with a typical highveld afternoon thunderstorm, making it too risky for the chopper to fly.
Eventually the storm closed in on itself and instead of an ambulance trip in Friday afternoon peak-hour traffic, Matthew was safely transported by helicopter from Lakeview Clinic in Benoni to the Parklane Clinic in Johannesburg thanks to a wonderful ER24 paramedic doctor.