Emersyn's NICU Journey and Recovery

My wife (Christina) and I are extremely lucky and proud to call ourselves parents to our sweet miracle baby, Emersyn Jean Bauman. Born on August 19, she decided that she wanted to come much earlier than expected. Emersyn was born at 25 weeks and 2 days, weighing only 14 oz. We had been as prepared as we could have been for this as during Christina’s pregnancy it was determined Emersyn had “SFGR” (Severe Fetal Growth Restriction). This required Christina to be hospitalized so both she and Emersyn could be monitored 24/7. Thanks to the amazing medical team at The Mother Baby Center and Children’s Hospital St. Paul, Emersyn was able to be delivered via emergency c-section and immediately intubated in order to breathe.

Since her birth, she has had to endure a lot. It became apparent very early on that Emersyn’s lungs were very weak (even more than a baby born as prematurely as Emersyn) and stiff. This required additional ventilation support in the way of a high frequency ventilator which supplies hundreds of very fast breaths every minute. In addition, we learned she had a PDA (blood vessel in the heart) that had not closed. All babies have a PDA, but in full-term babies, these close naturally in a day or two after birth. In pre-term babies, these are relatively common but tend to close with additional medication. Emersyn’s PDA unfortunately did not close with medication and over the first 60 days of her life she still was not able to transition off of her ventilator needs. Emersyn had tried two rounds of steroids to help her lung development and did have an attempted extubation of her breathing tube to transition from a ventilator to a C-PAP machine. She was able to be extubated for approximately two hours, but it became apparent she needed the additional breathing support a ventilator could give her. In addition, over the last 30 days, her PDA had enlarged to a point where her specific case was discussed by many neonatologists and cardiologists across the state as to what the best course of action would be for her. In the end, the determination was that she needed to have the PDA closed quite quickly (after initially thinking that we would not need to do so at the current time). This required Emersyn to be transported from Children’s St. Paul to Children’s Minneapolis to do this surgery. This morning, Dec 2, Emersyn had a high risk surgery to repair the PDA and so far has been doing well. As parents, all we want is what is best for our children. While Emersyn’s journey with us so far has only been in the NICU in her 105 days of life, she is so loved and adored by Christina and me, her grandmothers, and all of our extended family and friends. She is a warrior and fighter and we have no doubt that one day we will be able to take her home and enjoy time as a family not in a NICU room. While we do not know when we will be able to bring Emersyn home, we do know it will be at least be several months from now. What that will look like or what her long term respiratory needs may or may not be is still unclear. What we do know is that her lungs are extremely sick (chronic lung disease) and in order to begin to think about going home we need to first get her off of the ventilator. The hope is that in her next extubation attempt (likely attempted again in 4-6 weeks) we can maintain her on a C-PAP machine. If this is unsuccessful the discussion may turn into having a tracheotomy performed. If that is the path, that would require 24/7 monitoring once home. Obviously we are praying for the best outcome, but know together Christina and I have the strength to deal with whatever is to come.

The donations received would go towards helping with her medical bills due to her extended stay for both 2024 and 2025. Even those that do not donate (which is completely fine), if you have read this far, please include Emersyn in your prayers as we navigate through this time.

We are forever grateful for the care all of the nurses, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, social workers, nurse practitioners, doctors, fellows, nutritionists and those responsible for making the NICU such a special place. Each and every one of them are miracle workers. We would also like to donate a portion of your donations back to the Children’s NICU teams as a small way to say thank you for all they have done and continue to do to care for Emersyn.