When you get pregnant you don’t expect your baby to be hooked up to wires fighting for her life, but that’s exactly the situation Sarah Sartorius found herself in after delivering her baby girl Remi 4 months early. “The nurses came rushing in and told me to flip side to side. They were like, we need to find a heartbeat. They couldn’t find her heartbeat,” said Sartorius.
Sartorius had been feeling sick and thought she had the flu, but it turned out she had developed a staph infection in her uterus. When she was at the hospital being treated for her own illness, the doctors noticed Remi’s heart rate went down and they had to deliver her by emergency cesarean c-section. I didn’t know what to expect when I was heading to the O-R. I was very scared. I didn’t think she was going to make it,” said Sartorius.
Remi was born at Mercy Children’s Hospital and weighed 1 pound 1 ounce which is considered a micro preemie. Dr. Heather Hall said at that weight she was considered a micro premature infant and are at the highest risk. Remi spent 153 days in the hospital. Dr. Hall says one of the biggest struggles is keeping the baby warm, so Remi was placed in a bag for several hours after she was born until she was stable and could be moved to an incubator.
Remi also had a catheter in her umbilical cord to provide nutrition and medicines and hooked to machines for monitoring. It was touch and go for a while, but Remi’s family kept the faith saying they knew she would make it and they were right. Remi was finally able to go home after nearly 6 months.
Remi is now comfortable at home with her parents and big sister and her prognosis looks good. Dr. Hall credits advancements in medicine and Remi’s family for her survival. Remi still has some challenges and will have to be monitored. She could experience a delay in milestones, but overall, she’s very healthy!
