Two babies. Two miracles.

By Anna Douglas  

JULY 26, 2010 7:24 a.m. (0)

Babies leave Greenville Hospital’s NICU, neonatal intensive-care unit, either as miracles or angels.

Ten-month old Weston Ward, born with respiratory distress syndrome, left as a miracle.

For his mother Michelle Ward, Weston, a twin, is not just a gift from God but also a life saved by research and services funded by the March of Dimes Foundation.

“At first I was told, ‘your babies are fine, they don’t have to go to the NICU,’” Ward said.  “I remember thinking how wonderful that was.”

Shortly after delivery by Cesarean section, Ward said she noticed the doctors kept taking Weston out of the room.

“I kept wondering, ‘why I am only holding one of my babies?,’” she said.

In a crowded delivery room with about three NICU doctors for each child, Ward was told that Weston would have to go to the intensive-care unit for 48 hours.

“(When they told me that) I think I threw up,” she said.

Born five weeks early on Sept. 1, 2009 with his twin brother McIntyre, Weston was given surfactant, a drug used to promote lung development.  Surfactant was not available prior to 1986 and was developed by a grant given by the March of Dimes to Dr. T. Allen Merritt at the University of California at San Diego.

The Ward twins were premature but not an unhealthy weight, their mother said.

McIntyre weighed five pounds and 11 ounces; Weston was just five ounces lighter.  Over the next couple weeks, Weston dropped down to as low as four pounds, fighting for his life on IVs, an oxygen machine and a PICC line used for giving medication.

“Here I am, a new mom, and I have nothing to give this child,” Ward said.  “I felt completely hopeless.”

Michelle and her husband Mack decided to try to have a baby in January 2009.  Almost one month later, news of pregnancy came.

The morning of the first ultrasound, Ward told her husband she thought it would be great for their child to have a sibling as a playmate.

“He said to me, ‘we’re not having two unless God gives us twins,’” she said.  “And two hours later...surprise, surprise.”

Two heartbeats on the ultrasound screen increases the chance of a baby ending up in the NICU, doctors told the Wards.

A rough pregnancy was “God’s little heads up,” Ward said, but there were no warning signs of respiratory issues.

The shock and confusion parents go through during a baby’s serious medical complication is something NICU nurses and doctors understand, Ward said.

NICU staff celebrates milestones with parents that aren’t documented in a healthy child’s baby book.  Things like the first bottle feeding and the first time the infant breathes the room’s air with a machine helping are monumental in NICU.

Ward said nurses would write letters to her on Weston’s behalf and they would remove the breathing and feeding tubes long enough to take pictures.

“So many women take for granted a healthy baby,” she said.

Time spent in NICU was full of ups and downs, she said.

“Sometimes when I walked in it was like somebody punched me in the gut 400 times,” Ward said.

Witnessing the work made possible by the March of Dimes Foundation made the time in the hospital “the best experience and the worst experience of my life,” Ward said.

As the newest local ambassadors for the March of Dimes, Michelle and Mack Ward will be guest speakers at Greenville’s Signature Chef Auction held at The Embassy Suites on Nov. 14.

“Their role is to help us educate the general public and supporters on how (March of Dimes) has helped them,” said Laura Goodwin, the organization’s community director.

South Carolina has the third worse rate of premature babies in the nation, she said. Signature Chef Auctions is the foundation’s second-largest fundraiser.

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