Family to celebrate birthday of son born 4 months early

Family to celebrate birthday
of son born 4 months early
Second birthday of Garratt Gough coincides
with WalkAmerica event

OLD BRIDGE — Many parents dread the "terrible twos."

But Colleen and George Gough welcome every milestone in their son Garratt’s development.

When Garratt was born 16 weeks premature on April 27, 2001, he weighed only 1 pound 10 ounces. He could literally fit in the palm of Colleen’s hand.

Doctors gave him a 5 percent chance of survival and told the couple that, even if Garratt lived, he was certain to face serious health consequences such as blindness, respiratory problems, delayed development and mental retardation.

On Sunday, the Gough family will not only celebrate Garratt’s second birthday, but will also participate in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica in an effort to support the organization committed to saving babies from pre-term birth and birth defects.

As in the case of nearly half of all pre-term births, no one knows why Colleen de­livered her son prematurely. The preg­nancy, Colleen’s second, was progressing without incident until the 22nd week, when she began leaking fluid. Unfortunately, Colleen was not admitted to the hospital until two weeks later. By that time she was already in labor. (Doctors now speculate that an untreated infection caused Colleen to deliver pre-term.)

Immediately after his birth, Garratt was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at St. Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick, where he would be given acute care and treatment. Because she was ill with a fever, Colleen was not allowed to see her baby for almost 48 hours after he was born. All her husband could tell her was that she had a son and he was alive.

The truth was that Garratt was suffering from a myriad of complications due to his premature birth, including collapsed lungs; intraventricular hemorrhage, or bleeding in the brain, developmental disabilities, or cerebral palsy; retinopathy of prematu­rity, an eye condition caused by the ab­normal growth of blood vessels that can re­sult in vision loss and blindness; and patent ductus arteriosus — a condition in which a large blood vessel fails to close at birth.

Garratt spent 96 days in the NICU. Thirty of those days were spent on an oscil­lator, helping him breathe. The family be­lieves that what happened during those 96 days was a miracle — helped along by medical technology and a team of doctors and nurses for whom they came to have great respect. Garratt’s bleeding of the brain and his retinopathy resolved them­selves with no permanent damage, and the patent ductus arteriosus was treated with a medicine called indomethacin, which causes the ductus to narrow.

When he weighed 5.5 pounds, Garratt seemed huge to his parents, and the NICU team thought that he was healthy enough to go home.

According to medical professionals, Garratt is reaching every milestone on time. And although he is a healthy, in­quisitive 2-year-old who loves climbing and exploring his surroundings, Garratt still suffers from mild asthma as a result of his prematurity.

Recently, Colleen learned that the March of Dimes not only supported many of the treatments and technology that saved her son but is also committed to preventing pre-term birth.

"Our story had a happy ending," said Colleen. "Many similar scenarios don’t. By raising money and walking in WalkAmerica, I want to help the March of Dimes prevent other families from experi­encing the anguish of delivering a baby pre-term."

According to the March of Dimes, the medical advancements it supports have saved countless tiny lives. For example, the medicine that Garratt was given to treat patent ductus arteriosus was developed by a March of Dimes grantee. Another innova­tion from which Garratt benefited was the neonatal intensive care unit. In the 1970s, the March of Dimes successfully advocated for the regionaliza­tion of NICUs. Today, it is mandatory that every pregnant woman in the U.S. have ac­cess to a NICU.

Currently, March of Dimes researchers are working to uncover the mysteries sur­rounding pre-term birth. Last year in the U.S., one out of eight babies — or approx­imately 476,000 — were born prematurely. Although the annual rate of babies born prematurely has risen 27 percent since 1981, most Americans believe that this epidemic is in step with current medical progress and that babies born prematurely will be fine. The truth is that these infants run a greater chance of having serious physical and mental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, chronic lung disease, and vision and hearing loss that will last their lifetime.

On Jan. 30, the March of Dimes launched a five-year, $75 million Prematurity Campaign to decrease the rate of premature birth and to increase aware­ness of the growing problem. Components of the campaign include researching the causes of pre-term labor, education for women of childbearing age about the warn­ing signs of pre-term labor, education for health professionals to improve detection of high-risk pregnancies and address risk factors, and expanded access to health in­surance to improve prenatal care and infant health outcomes.

March of Dimes is asking that people help by joining WalkAmerica on April 27.

More than 30,000 volunteers across New Jersey will participate in the event at 24 sites, including the Louis Brown Athletic Center at Rutgers University in Piscataway. Walkers will help to fund re­search, public awareness and programs with the goal of saving babies from prema­ture birth and birth defects. For more in­formation, call 1-800-BIG-WALK or visit www.marchofdimes.com.