Sampedro, Juan Heinrick

[left:e56e540ad0]http://www.cherubs-cdh.org/Album/new/sampedrowinkely2.jpg[/left:e56e540ad0]My husband and I have been married for 3 years and a half. After our first year of marriage, we decided it as time to have a baby. We tried for a year and nothing happened. I went for revision and the doctors discovered I had Endometriosis. I had surgery and a 5 month treatment period. After it, the doctors saw that I had a hormonal dysfunction and decided to do ovarian stimulation with a drug called Gonal-F. It worked the first time, and you can imagine how delighted we were.

Everything went fine for the first 3 months and when I was 17 weeks pregnant, a sonogram showed that the baby had a CDH on his left side.

The 5 months which followed were like a roller-coaster ride. Every visit to the doctor led to a few days of deep anxiety. Finally, when I was 38 weeks pregnant, doctors Carr era and Galindo performed a C-Section. Juan came into this world crying and was taken to the intensive care unit immediately to stablise him. He was born at 12:35 p.m. and the following morning, at the same time, he was in the operation room. That evening, I saw my precious baby for the first time. He was a little bit swollen and yellow, but he was gorgeous.

Dr. Gomez, his pediatrician, removed the oxygen on day 3 and he was doing fine until day 7.Juan got a crisis and he needed extra blood to survive. He got an infection with a high fever which lasted for a few days.

I started breastfeeding him for 2 minutes on day 10, and he seemed to be doing fine. On day 13 he was carried from the ICU to the intermediate care unit, where he stayed for 12 more days. I was breastfeeding him while he was receiving milk through a tube and also "parental" support. The last week he was at hospital, he only was breastfed and doing great.

My baby is now at home. He is 11 weeks old, and he is just like a regular baby. I have never taken him to hospital, and he is already eating 6oz of milk. He breathes perfectly although he's got only a small part of his left lung.

We have to thank God and doctors Carr era, Galindo, Cauo, and Gomez, who saved my baby's life, and all the great staff from "12 de Octubre" from Madrid, Spain. I enclose a picture of Juan, which was taken 7 days after he was born.

He is our life and our joy, and I would like to encourage all parents of CDH children to go on with their pregnancies, because the prize at the end may be HUGE. Thanks for everything.


Written by Juan's mom, Sonia Winkels-Sampedro (Spain)
1999