Peter's Miracle Story

I know this is long, but you've got to read every part for it to make sense:

Jen had been meeting her perinatologist every monday at 10am to monitor the progress of our baby son. Well this monday, a miracle happened! After her perinatologist reviewed the ultrasound, she told Jen that she noticed a small anomaly with our baby's heart that hadn't previously been there on other ultrasounds. She told Jen they were going to admit her to labor/delivery and have the baby looked at closer by a special baby heart doctor. Jen was flustered because she had the car and didn't know how I'd get there (20 miles away). She called me, told me of the situation and told me that she was scared. Fortunately our neighbor Joyce was home and was lovingly ready to help. She took me to the hospital and watched Kaylene for the rest of the day and night.

After many hours of waiting, a doctor came into our room, sat down in a chair with a very serious look on her face and this is what she said and I quote: "What I'm about to tell you, you usually only hear on TV shows or in the movies, your perinatologist saved your sons life!" WHOA! Jen and I were in tears. She explained that our son had an extremely rare disorder called "premature ductus arteriosus closure", happens in 0.006% of children in the US and cannot be caused or prevented by anything the Mother had/is doing. Every baby has this duct in the heart that closes after birth and signals for the baby to start breathing using it's lungs, instead of through the heart. Which means if it does close early, the baby starts to breathe and drowns in the amniotic fluids. She also explained that this disorder slowly closes this duct over a 24-48 hour period while in the womb.

SO HERE'S THE MIRACLE, the doctor told us she was amazed that our perinatologist saw this with her limited knowledge on this subject and with the equipment that is not intended to see this kind of thing. She also said that if Jen had been seen a day before, no one would have seen it and if it were a day after, our baby would have been a still born. SO... since the baby's duct was already in the process of closing, they had to rush her into the O.R. and get our son out ASAP. I am just amazed that this was not only discovered by someone who was definitely inspired, but that it was done at the very right moment, not too soon and not too late. All the odds were against us and God looked over us! Thank you Heavenly Father for this amazing miracle!

We named him after my younger brother Peter, who passed away at 5 months from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

I will never forget the woman who saved my sons life! Dr. Katherine Gesteland.