Tillery, Caroline

My husband and I found out on August 5, 2012 our little girl had been diagnosed with CDH. The only reason this caught was because I had an ultrasound at 28 weeks for placenta previa otherwise our little girl would have been undiagnosed. We were blessed the ultrasound tech and our OB caught there was something not quite right on the ultras ground. We were referred that day for a more detailed ultrasound. At the time they thought it was fluid around her lungs. We had a MRI the next week and the results were in it was CDH. I went into immediate research mode since there only three months left in my pregnancy. I found all the material I could so I could be prepared. During the whole process from diagnosis, birth, surgery, and the NICU my husband and I remained positive. We truly knew our little girl would be okay. She was on various prayer lists before birth and we were as prepared as we could be.

Caroline Faye Tillery was born October 5, 2012 via a csectiom after 52 hours in the hospital. 16 of those hours in active labor. She was born at Forysth Medical Center with a immediate transfer to Brenner's Children Hosptial at Wake Forest Baptist. We was immediately ventilated through a jet vent. My husband went with her on the transport since I had to recover in the hospital. He met with the surgeon Dr.Petty and was given the best and worse case scenarios. We had already prepared ourselves do as much as possible. I had sent him with five pages of questions to be answered in their initial meeting. Dr.Petty even thought I had a medical background which is not the case but I found amusing!

Caroline did well on the jet but they wanted to transfer her to a conventional on day four to see if she could stand it for surgery. She was able to and on day 5 had the repair. Her bowels, colon, spleen, and a portion of her stomach were herniated. The amazing part was Dr.Petty was able to do the repairs muscle to muscle! She went through surgery amazingly. She came off ventilation on day 10 and was able to start eating on day 12. It was truly amazing! To our surprise she came home on day 17! We are pretty sure she broke the record for a baby with CDH at Brenner's getting out so quickly! She is our living miracle! She was strong throughout the entire process and was not going to let CDH have the best of her. We are truly blessed with our experience and only hope one day there is some way to detect why this terrible condition occurs.[ATTACH=CONFIG]1031





Shawna and Jim Tillery

Shawna, thank you for sharing the rest of Caroline's story with us...she is a preicous miracle and such a fighter! She is so beautiful....love the pictures!! Hope she keeps doing so well and has a healthy winter. You must be so proud of her! Do keep us posted on her milestones in the years to come. What a precious baby girl.

Caroline has pretty eyes too!

Thank you Tracy. We are very blessed with our CDH survivor.

Such an amazing story! Caroline is beautiful and such a strong baby. I hope she stays healthy and keeps impressing the doctors.

Thank you Amanda. She is a true survivor and we are so blessed. She is now almost 6 months old!

Wow !!!! Thank you do much for sharing your story.