Lucas
No one can ever accuse Lucas Riley of being a procrastinator.
In fact, the 2-year-old was so eager to get a jumpstart on life, he came out early. Nine weeks early, to be exact.
“I was actually working when I went into labor with him,” says Lucas’ mother Deanna. “It was really scary. I had a tough pregnancy with him, a lot of scares. Then my water just broke at work.”
Turns out Deanna’s work is the same place where her premature son would be transferred just a few weeks later– Children’s Hospital Central California. Deanna has worked in the clinical laboratory for three years.
Though Children’s doesn’t deliver babies, they’re highly equipped to care for them. The hospital’s 65-bed Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) offers some of the highest levels of care in the world for critically ill or low birth weight premature infants. The NICU will soon expand to 88 beds and has 24/7 coverage by board certified neonatologists with consultations from medical and surgical subspecialists.
Deanna was sent to Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno to deliver Lucas. There, medication helped delay his arrival for a few more weeks. The extra time also allowed physicians to administer a steroid to help strengthen Lucas’ lungs. All the while, staff from Children’s satellite NICU at Saint Agnes prepared Deanna for childbirth.
After three weeks, Lucas simply couldn’t wait anymore. Immediately after delivery, he was whisked away to Children’s Hospital in Madera. There, neonatologist Dr. Vinod Bansal and the NICU team went to work. He was fitted with an oxygen hood to help him breathe, but thankfully, there were no serious complications from his early birth. He just needed some time to feed and grow. He stayed at the Hospital for just a week before being transferred back to the Saint Agnes satellite NICU for another three weeks.
“I thought Children’s did an awesome job,” says Deanna. “They were really thorough, they explained everything to me. Even after he was discharged the nurses would talk to us on the phone and would answer our questions when we weren’t even patients anymore.”
Today, Lucas shows no long-term physical effects of his early birth. His speech is delayed, but it’s getting better every day thanks to the care team in the Audiology Department at Children’s.
Other than that, Lucas is just your normal, healthy 2-year-old with a flair for the dramatic.
“He’s kind of a daredevil,” says Mom. “He loves to jump. He flips off the couch. He’s all over the place.”
Who knows, at the rate he’s growing, Lucas could be a future X-Games competitor.
Today, he’s jumping the couch, tomorrow; it could be the Great Wall.
Journey Sponsored by Ken & Susan Boyd
Adventure Sponsored by Bennett Frost