All I can say, and Hayden’s mom can say is thank god for some of these doctors at the Alberta Children’s hospital. Without them, little Hayden probably wouldn’t have survived. She was born with only 10 percent of her intestines. So, she had to have surgery and be fed intravenously. But a team of specialists at the ACH make sure those feeds go well and Hayden gets what she needs. It’s remarkable.
Here’s the story.
One year old Hayden Kretschmer acts like most kids her age. But she’s very different.
Hayden’s mom Marina Eason explains, “she was born with about 23 centimetres of intestine and usually babies have about 300 centimetres, so she didn’t have very much.”
This is why she spent the first 9 months of her life at the Alberta Children’s Hospital.
“It’s hard because none of my friends had sick kids, I’d see my friends bring their babies home and have normal healthy children.”
But Hayden is doing so well because of a team of specialists at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. They help babies live off of intravenous feeds.
Doctor David Sigalet says, “we have a dietitian, we have a nurse, a gastroenterologist specialist – every day looking at what’s going on with these children.”
It’s an approach that’s being modelled in children’s hospitals across North America, because these IV feeds have serious side effects.
“Susceptibility to infection and problems most dramatically with jaundice, so poorly functioning livers,” says Dr. Sigalet.
One way to help these babies with their feeds is to train their parents how to do it at home.
Hayden gets 6 bottles during the day and all IV feeds happen at night and mom and dad look after everything.
And Doctor Sigalet says that’s best for baby.
“If families are taking care of the child and all IV steps they actually have a lower rate of infection than they do in hospital because there’s less cross contamination.”
Doctor Sigalet also performs a unique surgical procedure called a “STEP surgery” to help these babies absorb food.
“We can take the bowel and go across it with one of these staplers and go one after the other like origami and it ends up being more narrow but longer so we end up with more useful surface area.”
Hayden has had 2 of these surgeries. And Doctor Sigalet expects she’ll be off her IV feeds in about 6 months.
And Hayden’s mom is thrilled.
“That seems like nothing, like I can’t wait, we’re getting there.”