Nathan Paulk
For Alice and Brian, being able to hold their son, Nathan, even for a few minutes meant so much.
Nathan was born with an undiagnosed congenital heart defect at Orange Park Medical. Due to the urgency of the defect, Nathan was rushed to the NICU at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
Nathan was suffering from pulmonary atresia (where the pulmonary valve does not form properly) and Tetralogy of Fallot (a series of heart defects that causes low oxygenation of the blood or blue baby syndrome).
Nathan immediately underwent surgery to correct the defects. This was a difficult time for Alice and Brian. Their baby was being kept in the NICU and they had not had the chance to even hold him. One of the nurses in the NICU noticed this and asked them if they would like to make arrangements to hold Nathan for a short bit.
It was this short bit of physical contact that would carry them through Nathan’s 74-day stay in the NICU, PICU and 6th floor. Nathan still had a few complications after the first surgery, so the doctors at Wolfson Children’s Hospital had to perform a second corrective surgery. He came out of it but on ECMO with 24 hour around the clock care/watch. It was a bumpy couple of months as Nathan was on ECMO, had his chest open for a while, was on the ventilator for over a month and developed an infection in his blood. But, we finally “graduated” out of the PICU to the 6th floor and eventually home in February of 2005. Nathan’s parents were as nervous as any family would be, but had the comfort of knowing the caring doctors, nurses and staff were watching over Nathan round-the-clock.
When Nathan was 18 months old it was time to give him a pulmonary valve that would work better and support his growth. That surgery was much smoother and we were only in the hospital for 9 days.
Nathan also received services from the wonderful people who work in the Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy Departments at the Wolfson Orange Park location from birth to June of 2010.
We aren’t done at Wolfsons as Nathan’s valve will have to be replaced sometime in the next few years. Even though we don’t look forward to that day we are thankful for the new building and heart floor that will be available to us this next go around.
Nathan is now 7 years old. He is happy and healthy, and his parents are thankful for the hospital staff. Had it not been for their hard work, Nathan would not be here today.
