Abbie was born on September 23, 2008, three weeks premature.
She was delivered at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts via caesarean section because of her mother’s gestational diabetes and preeclampsia. Within the first 24 hours of life, Abbie was transferred to UMASS Memorial NICU as a result of green liquid bile that she was throwing up upon nursing. Her abdomen also became increasingly distended as time progressed.
While Abbie was in the hospital, a barium enema was performed to see if there were any blockages or twists in her intestines.
Other x-rays and tests were performed, all which came back normal. After a month in the NICU with no diagnoses of what was wrong, a Biopsy was performed. A tiny piece of her intestine was examined under a microscope and the absences of ganglia was confirmed, thus indicating Hirschsprung’s disease was the cause of her illness.
Abbie first had an ileostomy and about a year later her pull-through was performed.
While performing the pull-through surgery her left ureter was accidently cut, requiring a ureteral stent to be put in until it healed in 6-8 weeks. During that time they put in a BROVIACcatheter so that Abbie could receive Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN). She had three infections from the BROVIACcatheter. Abbie was hospitalized many times for infections and complications with her BROVIACcatheter. For the last year and a half, Abbie’s liver enzymes have been elevated for a year and a half. She is not potty trained yet and still does not eat much. We are changing 12-15 diapers a day. Abbie is doing well has not had any hospitalizations since May 24, 2010.