After life-threatening start, Jack is right on track
Jack Ambrose is a typical three-year-old, with a penchant for TV's “Thomas & Friends.” According to his mother, Lori, she finds his “Thomas” trains in the most unlikely places in their home: in shoes, the dishwasher, the washing machine and in his parents' bed. She says Jack also insists on wearing his “Thomas” pajamas to bed each night.
But Jack started out as anything but a typical child. As a newborn he faced a number of serious challenges – challenges that required treatment by a multidisciplinary team of highly-skilled specialists coordinated through Children's Memorial's Division of Neonatology. The division is supported by The Founders' Board of Children's Memorial Hospital, which in 2006 completed a $6.5 million commitment to neonatology, among others.
Jack was 13 weeks premature when Lori gave birth in March 2003 at Prentice Women's Hospital at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Jack wasn't breathing, and was immediately transferred to the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where he was put on a ventilator. A week later he was rushed to Children's Memorial by the hospital's Children's Service Board Emergency Transport Team, where surgeons operated on him to close a vessel in his heart. It marked the beginning of Jack's four-month stay in Children's Memorial's NICU, a period that Lori says was full of emotional ups and downs for her and her husband, Bill.
Jack was also diagnosed with hydrocephalus at birth, caused by bleeding in his head, which resulted in cerebrospinal fluid collecting in the ventricles of his brain. Neurosurgeon Robin M. Bowman, MD, inserted a reservoir to remove the excess fluid, which had to be tapped every day for two weeks. Jack also contracted pneumonia during the two months he was on a ventilator.
Lori says with each new twist and turn, Isabelle DePlaen, MD, Jack's neonatologist, and his various NICU nurses went out of their way to make the family feel comfortable.
“Seeing everything he was hooked up to, and what the nurses went through just to get him out of the incubator so we could hold him was unbelievable,” says Lori. And then they would ask us if we were comfortable and if there was anything we needed.”
Lori also recalls the kindness Dr. DePlaen showed to Jack.
“I remember after Jack finally got off the ventilator I'd go to see him and he wouldn't be in his crib,” she says. “And the nurse would say, ‘Oh, Dr. DePlaen is walking around the floor with him.'”
Four months after he came to Children's Memorial, Jack finally went home with his family. He still faced some setbacks, however. A week after he came home he developed the croup and was readmitted for a week. When he was seven months old he returned to the hospital to have a shunt inserted by Bowman to help drain the cerebrospinal fluid.
Jack continues to see Bowman twice a year for check ups, and has needed speech, physical and developmental therapy to catch up with other children his age. But Lori says to see him, you'd never know about all the challenges Jack faced. She also says the once tiny baby is now in the average percentile in height and weight for his age.
“I can't imagine bringing him anywhere else,” says Lori. “It takes special people to do what they do at Children's Memorial. My husband and I are so grateful to them. If it hadn't been for Children's Memorial, Jack might not be here.”
Children's Memorial Hospital seeks philanthropic funding to enhance its programs and services. As a proud partner of the Children's Miracle Network (CMN), all funds raised in the Chicago area through CMN also benefit Children's Memorial. To find out how your support can help the hospital better serve children and families, e-mail us at Foundation@childrensmemorial.org.