By DAWN SHURMAITIS; Times Leader Staff Writer<\/p>\n
PITTSTON — Baby Byrd didn’t look real — let alone alive.<\/p>\n
Maybe it was his size, hardly larger than a pound of butter and just as
\nsoft. Maybe it was the spaghetti maze of probes and wires piercing his
\npinky-sized arms and legs.<\/p>\n
Maybe it was the life-lines pumping air into his barely formed lungs and
\nnutrients into his tiny stomach.<\/p>\n
That was Eddie Byrd, dressed in the only things that would fit — doll
\nclothes.<\/p>\n
Eddie slipped into the world 16 weeks early at 1:11 a.m. on Nov. 15,
\nweighing all of 1 pound, 11 ounces.<\/p>\n
Since then, he’s defied the odds, growing nearly 500 percent — or to 5
\npounds, 3 ounces.<\/p>\n
The third child of Alison and John Byrd, both 31, Eddie is now sleeping,
\ncrying and dirtying his diaper at home in the family’s Pittston
\ndouble-block.<\/p>\n
But technically, he hasn’t even been born yet. His mother’s due date was
\nFeb. 24.<\/p>\n
“We’ve really been lucky,” says Alison Byrd. “There were hardly any
\nsetbacks and he’s here, thank God.”<\/p>\n
Humble beginning<\/p>\n
A handful in the literal sense, Eddie spent 2 months under the vigilant
\nwatch of the staff of Community Medical Center in Scranton.<\/p>\n
The hospital’s Regional Newborn Intensive Care Unit began serving a
\nsix-county region in 1980. So far, its staff has treated 4,000 babies,
\nincluding Eddie, who was cared for by a team of four neonatologists headed
\nby Dr. J. Delfor Salazar.<\/p>\n
Since the center’s opening, the survival rate for infants treated there has
\nrisen to an average of 94 percent, compared to the national average of 85
\npercent.<\/p>\n
The regional infant mortality rate has dropped from 13.9 out of every 1,000
\nbirths in 1978 to 2.46 in 1990 — the lowest in the state. The statewide
\nrate per 1,000 births remains at 6.3.<\/p>\n
The Byrds credit the caring hospital staff for Eddie’s rapid improvement.
\nTheir compassion helped the Byrd’s through many a long, uncertain night.<\/p>\n
“I could call day or night and they would talk to me,” says Alison.<\/p>\n
The doctors explained every move in detail. Alison remembers one night when
\nDr. Salazar came into her hospital room at 4 a.m. to give her the how, why
\nand when surrounding Eddie’s care.<\/p>\n
When he improved, the doctors and nurses cheered right along with Alison
\nand John.<\/p>\n
“They got as excited as we did,” she says. “It was beautiful.<\/p>\n
“They were great there. I was petrified.”<\/p>\n
A long shot<\/p>\n
The Byrds had good reason to be scared.<\/p>\n
A baby is considered premature if it weighs less than 5 pounds at birth.
\nBut babies weighing less than 2 pounds have the poorest chance of survival.<\/p>\n
The chance for survival is the greatest after the seventh month. Eddie was
\nborn at 24 weeks or six months.<\/p>\n
In many premature infants, certain organs, especially the lungs, have not
\ndeveloped sufficiently for the baby to survive without medical assistance.<\/p>\n
Other problems include the inability to digest normal-sized feedings and
\nthe baby’s lack of adequate control over its temperature. Most premature
\ninfants are placed into an incubator to ensure a constant body temperature.<\/p>\n
At birth, Eddie’s skin was so clear his parents could see his veins. His
\nhead was so soft that when he lay on his side, it compressed.<\/p>\n
“He looked like a GI Joe doll,” says Eddie’s dad.<\/p>\n
Instead of mother’s milk, Eddie lived on a daily diet of antibiotics and
\nnutrients: water, protein, vitamins, fats and glucose.<\/p>\n
The Byrds couldn’t hold their newborn, and had to be content to stroke him
\nthrough the gloved holes in the side of the incubator.<\/p>\n
“I was always afraid I was going to hurt him,” says Alison. “As he got
\nbigger, I got better.”<\/p>\n
In her baby book, Eddie’s mother didn’t mark the date of his first smile.
\nShe wrote down his first blood transfusion. He had two.<\/p>\n
Thanksgiving and Christmas were spent at the hospital. To brighten the day,
\nthe nurses cut out a paper stocking and put Eddie’s picture inside the
\ncenter. It now hangs prominently on the Byrds’ living room wall.<\/p>\n
Life goes on<\/p>\n
Alison attributes the premature births of her three children to medical
\nproblems she had in the past.<\/p>\n
John, now 8, was three weeks early. Five-year-old Samantha arrived two
\nmonths early.<\/p>\n
The couple moved here in August 1989, after John was discharged after five
\nyears in the Army. Originally from Long Island, N.Y., the Byrds wanted to
\nsettle in a nice community close to Alison’s parents, who live in
\nHonesdale. John now works as a toolmaker in Moscow.<\/p>\n
Alison originally planned to give birth at Nesbitt Hospital. But when a
\ndoctor there realized her condition, he told the couple, “If it was my wife
\nI’d bring her to CMC.”<\/p>\n
After Alison’s water broke, she spent 10 days in the hospital, and then had
\na Caesarean section.<\/p>\n
There were about 10 other premature babies in the unit when Eddie was born.
\nHe was the smallest — as wide as his father’s hand and only 10 inches
\nlong.<\/p>\n
“They call these the negative months,” says Alison. “But eventually, he
\nwill catch up.”<\/p>\n
After 2 weeks at the hospital, Alison and her husband began returning for
\ndaily visits. Luckily, the family had medical insurance. While they were
\nunsure what Eddie’s care ultimately cost, Alison’s bill came to $10,000.<\/p>\n
The frequent snowstorms made traveling from Pittston to Scranton difficult.
\nNurses sometimes had to work two shifts back-to-back because their relief
\ncouldn’t make it in. When the Byrds called the hospital, anxious about
\nmissing a visit, the nurses assured them Eddie wouldn’t mind.<\/p>\n
“It was all the little things they did,” Alison says.<\/p>\n
The Byrds brought Eddie’s brother and sister to the hospital for visits,
\nbut they could only look through the glass. The nurses took Polaroid photos
\nto show them his progress.<\/p>\n
Today, Eddie’s head is covered with a soft brown fuzz. He’s a little
\ncolicky, but otherwise healthy. Except for vitamin supplements, he isn’t on
\nany medication. Just plain baby formula.<\/p>\n
“We fought so hard,” says Alison. “Some of it is all a blur.”<\/p>\n
————————————————————————
\nAll content \u00a9 TIMES LEADER and may not be republished without permission.<\/p>\n
————————————————————————
\nAll archives are stored on a SAVE ™ newspaper library system from
\nMediaStream Inc., a Knight Ridder company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By DAWN SHURMAITIS; Times Leader Staff Writer PITTSTON — Baby Byrd didn’t look real — let alone alive. Maybe it was his size, hardly larger than a pound of butter and just as soft. Maybe it was the spaghetti maze of probes and wires piercing his pinky-sized arms and legs. Maybe it was the life-lines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dawnshurmaitis.net\/works\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}