Pictures of the Problems with Premature Babies birth in Pittsburgh- My Daughter Had a Preemie Baby at 16

The hardest time in my life was when my daughter gave birth to a premature baby on Augest 11, 2010. Brionna Levine was born at 24 weeks and weighed 1 lb and 9 oz. There was not any warning signs at all that she was going to deliver that day. More than half of all premature babys have no warning signs. We live in Bradford PA and the baby was helicoptered to Dubois to a NeoNatal unit. On Augest 13, the doctor in Dubois decided to have the baby flown to Pittsburg because her toes were turning purple, he stated if he didnt have her sent to Pittsburg she may loose a couple toes. In Pittsburg they had to move her IV from her belly to her chest in hopes the blood would start circulating in her toes.

A couple days after Bionna arrived in Pittsburg they found a bleed in her brain. The doctors say it is a stage three on both sides. We are now faced with the decision of what to do. The doctors say she will be severly brain damaged from whis and have a bad case of ceribal palsey. Brionna is too weak to have a shunt placed in. They said we needed to think about whats best for Brionna.

My thoughts are what kind of quality of life will Brionna have? I have worked in a nursing home for about eight years now and from time to time I think why do familys put there loved ones through all this when they have g-tubes and are almost like a vegetable. I dont want Brionna to live this way yet i dont want to be the person to take her life.

On Augest 23, my daughter and I made the decision to let Brionna rest. Neithor one of us want her to suffer the rest of her life. We had a preist come in and had her babtist. We also had a photographer come in and take some pictures of her so we could have some memories. I have been in tears for days over this. No one should have to bury a baby. I also made some funeral arrangements as we have a coroner in the family thank goodness.

On augest 24 my daughter and I arrived at the hospital with plans to lay Brionna to rest. About an hour before we were about to do this the doctor came back in the room. Brionnas doctor stated he had one last option for Brionna which was a spinal tap. He stated if he could draw fluid from her brain through a spinal tap Brionna would have a 20% chance at living a halfway normal life. I was in shock as were the nurses. One of the nurses stated she was so sorry, she never saw this comming. It wasnt her fault, shes not a doctor. She also said she has never seen a doctor change what was going to happen like this before.

My daughter had a look on her face, almost as if she was mad. I asked her what was her problem. Something had come over me that I was so happy they may have found something to fix her. I told her I had no problems caring for a child that was handicapt. Kala then stated, well what if I cant? I thought for a moment and said look if thats what this is about Kala your afraid you can't take care of her, then I will, no questions asked and no one will judge you. This is my decision and our lives and besides who cares what people think about you, they dont live in your shoes. She then felt much better about the decision to wait and see what the spinal tab can do for her.

The next day we recieve a call from the hospital. They did the spinal tap but it was unsucessful and they tryed twice. Now we are back to square one again with Brionna. i cant stop thinking, was this a sign not to stop things? Where do I go from here? i dont want Brionna to live an unhappy life yet I dont want to give her up eithor.....I am at the point if I can't make the call then to just wait and see what happens because if i say to take her off the ventelater, I could never turn back and thats something I have to live with the rest of my life and so does my daughter. i keep thinking why cant they try the spinal tap again....

Evertime the hospitals number shows up on my phone I get butterflys thinking something has happened. The hospital called me the next day and said they were going to try one last attempt at a spinal tap. I said, thank god, Its now or never and I truly believed this time, it is going to work. the hours past as I remember thinking yesterday they called so fast, its taking forever today, maybe it worked. I recieved the call about five hours later from the doctor. The doctor stated on the phone the procedure had worked and they were able to drain 60cc's of fluid off her brain. What this means is Brionna now has a 20 percent chance at living without serious neurological complications.

Some Friends have decided to do a benefit for our family.

After calling the hospital today the doctor said they did an ultrasound on her head and they said the ventracles in her brain arent getting any smaller. They said they are going to do spinal taps daily now and are talking of placing in a shunt. If Brionna has a shunt in, she will have this the rest of her life. My grandchild will not ever be free of medical complications from all this if she makes it and I'm ok with that, atleast she is alive. I may have to quite my job too take care of her for awhile.

My daughter Kala started her first day back to school, her junior year. I decided to drive to Pittsburg to visit Brionna. While I was in the room they came to do a spinal tap but said they would wait till I go home so I could visit. About an hour later, the nurse practitioner came back in the room and stated the doctor had reviewed the ultrasound on her head that showed a blood clot moving its way down. One more tap and it may have blocked it. I said to her, "So, there was another reason I was in this room"? She stated, "This baby is destined to be someone".  A short time later, the doctor came in and said, "they are going to just have to wait and hope the ventracles in her head do not get any bigger in the next few weeks". I told the doctor at this point, there not going to and she liked the way I think. The doctor also informed me there was a ventracle in her heart that was open and they could not feed her untill its closed which required sergery because they gave her medicine that did not work.

I phoned the hospital today, three times. At noon they started feeds on Brionna with a tube down to her stomach. they will be feeding her every three hours. She is doing well and keeping the food down. The doctor ordered ultrasounds on her head once a week now. Through all this Brionna is getting to be one famous baby. Flyers are being printed to post around town. My daughter was asking me questions again last night asking why this happened to her baby when theres other girls at school who delivered healthy babys. I try to explain giving birth to a premature baby occurs for frequent than she thinks and the other teens were just the lucky ones.

I will be starting a part two on Brionna as there is so much to tell about her progress.