There was something different about this pregnancy.

玛丽说不清楚，但她凭直觉感觉到了.

10月的一个周六晚上，她出现在坦帕一家医院的急诊科, days before her scheduled induction. Would the doctors think she was just being dramatic?

They didn’t.

Mary was in labor.

Baby girl Birdie entered the world at 11:03 p.m. that very same evening.

But Birdie’s arrival date wasn’t the only surprise.

Something wasn’t right.

“When she came out, she was blue,” Mary says. “I started pounding her back. I knew she wasn’t breathing.”

接生小组带走了婴儿，并立即开始对她进行人工复苏. Mary’s husband, Rob, 随着他们的新生儿被送往医院的新生儿重症监护病房(NICU)，. She was put on a ventilator.

What was wrong with Birdie?

Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia

Soon, a devastating diagnosis.

Birdie had congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH), 横膈膜上的一个洞，导致腹部器官向上迁移到胸部，阻碍肺的生长.

“I had never even heard of CDH,” Mary says. “In the blink of an eye, our lives just shifted.”

CDH越来越多地在婴儿出生前被诊断出来——通常是在20周的超声波期间. But sometimes, 特别是如果心脏看起来处于正常位置，肝脏没有上移到胸部，这种危及生命的出生缺陷可能不会被发现.

Now Mary and Rob had an urgent decision to make. 伯迪应该留在坦帕医院接受治疗吗?或者还有别的选择?

医院里的一位医生告诉玛丽在圣路易斯市有一个特殊的中心. Petersburg.

The Center for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CCDH) at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital 是否有专门治疗CDH的住院中心. 这是该国第一个这样的地方，并且仍然是一个存活率超过国家基准的地方.

“他告诉我，‘如果我的儿子或女儿处于这种情况，我会把我的孩子送到那里，’”玛丽说.

CDH Care at Johns Hopkins All Children’s

When Birdie was 12 hours old, 她被生命线救护车送往约翰霍普金斯儿童医院. 

The highly skilled CDH team, under the direction of David Kays, M.D., 他既自信又安慰——马上去稳定小鸟, 然后沟通护理计划，让家人放心.

“Dr. 凯斯人很好，从他进来的第一刻起就让bet8九州下载坐下。”玛丽说.

Some babies born with CDH are very sick right away. 另一些人第一天表现一般，第二天就出现问题了.

“bet8九州下载已经能够改进技术，大大降低第二天不稳定的风险, 这通常会导致需要体外膜氧合(ECMO)支持,” Kays says.

ECMO is a form of heart-lung bypass. 它不能总是避免，尤其是在严重的情况下，但它确实伴随着固有的风险. 在全国范围内，需要体外膜肺支持的CDH婴儿存活率约为50%. 约翰霍普金斯儿童医院的ECMO存活率要高得多，超过90%.

Birdie did not require ECMO support. 但她需要手术，以及一些非常专业的护理.

On her sixth day of life, 凯斯和他的团队进行了精细的修复手术——将婴儿的器官从她的胸部移到合适的位置，并关闭她横膈膜的开口.

The surgery went smoothly, and Birdie recovered well. But she had a long way to go.

Eating Like a Birdie

About a week after surgery, a big milestone. Birdie’s breathing tube was removed.

Now she needed time to heal. Time for her lungs to grow and get stronger.

And she needed to learn to eat. A common challenge for babies with CDH.

“She struggled at first,” Mary says. 她会吃一些，但很容易疲劳，一夜之间体重就减轻了.”

约翰霍普金斯儿童医院的团队成员是帮助这些婴儿学习如何进食的专家. 这意味着更高比例的bet8九州下载回家自己吃饭，没有喂食管.

Day by day, Birdie learned to eat a tiny bit more. She was proving to be a fighter.

在艰难的日子里，玛丽会用阿黛尔的音乐填满房间. “最甜蜜的奉献”这首歌似乎总能让小鸟兴奋起来.

I've been looking for you, baby
In every face that I've ever known
And there is something 'bout the way you love me
That finally feels like home.

Home

It had been a difficult and, sometimes, 可怕的旅程，但玛丽和她的家人怀着深深的感激之情.

玛丽说:“没有一个护士、医生或工作人员不令人惊讶。. “bet8九州下载希望其他鼎晖婴儿也能得到和bet8九州下载一样的机会.”

在她出生46天后，这个婴儿就要回家了.

Home to her own room. Home to her adoring dad, and big sisters Nellie and Olive, who were so excited to welcome their baby sister.

Home to life.

Time for this Birdie to truly take flight.