Health Headlines: Preemies defying the odds
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Ivanhoe Newswire) - One in ten babies born this year will be born prematurely. That is when a baby is born before or at 37 weeks of pregnancy. They can develop problems with their lungs, heart, and brain…issues they will have to deal with for their entire lives. One woman born a preemie didn’t let that stop her from doing what most doctors said she could never do.
Forty-three years ago, Gabriela Gastelum was born at 25 weeks, weighing just a pound.
“Since I was born so small, I had a grade three brain bleed,” says Gabriela.
Two shunts were connected at birth to a catheter that drained the fluid from her brain to around her abdomen. It was replaced six times. Gabriela was told she could never have kids.
Gabriela says “There’s no way. If you do, it’s either you or the babies that are gonna survive.”
But for her…the desire to have a family was worth the risk.
“We had to go through IVF. We ended up going through six cycles,” explains Gabriela.
Finally, Gabriela was expecting twins. Then, at 30 weeks.
Thomas Beaumont, MD, Neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health says, “She was essentially comatose at that time, not responsive, not speaking.”
Fluid was building up in her brain again.
Doctor Beaumont says, “So, the pressure in her abdomen had gotten so high that it offset the pressure in her head, and the shunt no longer worked.”
Doctor Beaumont had to put in an external shunt to drain the fluid.
“We were able to insert a needle into the shunt valve and take off a large volume of cerebral spinal fluid that allowed her really to wake up almost instantaneously over the next 60 to 90 minutes,” explains Doctor Beaumont.
And two weeks later it was safe to deliver the babies by C-section.
Babies Liyah and Natalia – came with a surprise!
Doctor Beaumont says, “The second twin was born with that shunt catheter in her hand.”
The old shunt in Gabriela that was too risky to remove during pregnancy – was removed by Liyah!
Gabriela says, “And I was like, oh my god. That was causing all that issue.”
One twin stayed in the NIC-U for 56 days and the other 107 days – and now …
The family is all home, healthy, happy, and ready to roll.
A few weeks after giving birth, Gabriela needed to have a new shunt put in. This revision was also performed by Doctor Beaumont and his team.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Roque Correa, Editor, Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer.
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