Jekiah's Story

Jekiah - A Miracle Baby

I was 18 years old. I was homeless and living on the streets when I found out I was pregnant. I had a pretty normal pregnancy until we got to about 32 weeks. I was then told I had pre-eclampsia and was put on bed rest. That was no fun. On the night of September 10, 2001  I was having severely high BP so my mom took me to the ER.

They gave me meds to try to help it go down and it wasn't working. All night long my son's heart would do little "tricks." It would get as high as the 180's then drop to the 90's. You could hear his heartbeat speed up and slow down.

The doctors thought he was just playing with the cord. In the morning at about 8am they did an ultrasound to try to figure out why his heart was responding so strangely.  They looked at my ultra sound and he had almost no amniotic fluid and he was in stress from that.

It was September 11th. All hell had broken loose in New York. My doctor did an emergency c-section. My son was born at 2lbs 11oz and just 14.25 inches at 2:37pm on September 11, 2001. After he was born I could hear him crying. This little man had some lungs! He had I.V.'s, feeding tube and a respiratory monitor. He had a bit of Apnea. He also developed a little jaundice. He stayed in the NICU for 4 days. My son came home on October 2, 2001. He weighed just 3lbs and 8 ounces.  He was a bug in the bottom of his car seat! Jekiah experienced several serious set backs and had to be hospitalized. At 5 months  he got RSV and had to be hospitalized again. He still needs to have breathing treatments when he gets a cold so he can breath easier. Now Jekiah is 17 months and is walking, talking and is very smart! He is still a little developmentally behind but not very far. He weighs 20lbs now and I am just so proud of him.

Jekiah was a 911 baby and he was born on 9-11. He truly is my miracle baby.

Submitted by:  Daja Scroggs, Mother