Preemie Born at 22 Weeks Given 1% Chance of Survival. Parents Ask for Prayers
Though pregnancy and the initial birth of a child are small miracles, there is always the risk that something may go wrong, leading to devastation and pain for those involved. This is especially true when babies are born prematurely.
Lisa Healion Meyer was thrilled after learning she and husband, Ben Meyer, were expecting their third child — a little girl. In fact, the mother of two from Nebraska was having what many would call a smooth pregnancy, with no outward sign that something was about to go very wrong.
At just 22 weeks pregnant, however, Meyer had a subchorionic hemorrhage — a seemingly “normal” occurrence that doctors told her should heal on its own. As the days went by, however, Meyer realized it wasn’t healing at all.
The incident changed the course of Meyer’s pregnancy. The situation eventually took a took a turn for the worst and she went into premature labor. By the time she and Ben arrived at the Methodist Women’s Hospital, she had already dilated 3 centimeters.
“The doctors tried to have me taken into surgery to sew up the cervix and stop labor,” Meyer said. “But my water broke and an infection was discovered so they had to give me Pitocin so that my body didn’t go into septic shock.”
Doctors told the couple that the “age of viability” is around 24 weeks for preemies, and as their daughter, Logan, was brought into the world, she was given merely a 1 percent chance of survival.
Doctors said Logan would be too small for the breathing tube, leaving the staff asking the couple if they wished to simply allow the preemie to pass away as they held her. Mayer later said that the whole process of going through labor while knowing that their child might not make it was “heartbreaking.”
“We were asked if we would rather just hold her after birth so we could have time with her until her heart stopped,” Meyer recalled. “They were going to provide us with a cooling cot to keep her body from decomposing. We were devastated.”
“We decided that the 1 percent chance was worth it,” she added. “We wanted the doctors to try and save her.”
That decision paid off immensely.
The couple was able to convince doctors to attempt the breathing tube after Logan was delivered, though staff stated that, if it failed, they would refuse to perform chest compressions as they didn’t want the baby to suffer. It was only a matter of time, prayer, and holding out hope that the preemie would be strong enough to survive.
And she did. See little Logan below:
“When I found out that the NICU team was able to get her tube and IVs in without much issue I went from the lowest low to such a high,” Meyer said.
Though doctors warned that a full three weeks is still needed before they can fully assess Logan’s life expectancy, the parent’s are simply taking it day by day as their baby girl continues to improve.
“She was supposed to be born on June 21, so we’re looking at at least six months in the NICU,” Meyer added, whose family set up a GoFundMe page to assist with Logan’s medical bills during her long road to recovery. However, the family remains optimistic that their preemie will pull through by the many blessings she’s already experienced.
“Ever since, we have been just been so overwhelmingly grateful! We are so blessed to have her at almost five days old,” Meyer said. “She has been stable and really defying the odds.”
What a miracle. We’ll certainly be keeping Logan and her family in our prayers.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
