Luca's story
27 weeks, 960 grams
Luca was born at 27 weeks, 960gms, with no time for steroids for lung development. I had a heart shaped uterus, and because of this shape and where Luca was sited, he ran out of space, hence the early delivery. He was put on a ventilator for the first 8 hours, and then straight onto CPAP and went home oxygen free. Luca had no major complications in hospital, having only two blood transfusions.
Luca was born with one club foot. At approximately 34 weeks, Lucas’ left leg was put in plaster cast, and from then until 3 weeks after leaving hospital, the leg and foot was recast at a different angle each fortnight.
Three weeks after coming home Luca was back in hospital for an operation to tie down a twisting testical. At this time he was also fitted with a pair of boots connected by a metal bar which he wore 23hrs a day until he was 9 months old. From 9 months Luca only wore the boots each evening sleep and this will continue until he turns corrected age two.
The boots delayed Lucas’ walking, and he only began to walk at 22 months. He will turn two next month, and is now a cheeky, happy normal toddler doing what most kids his corrected age would do.
Thanks so much for sharing your personal story!
We get a lot of positive feedback from families in a neonatal unit who read these stories and feel strength, hope and positivity knowing that they are not alone going through these experiences and feeling certain emotions.
If you would like to discuss sharing the story of your neonatal journey, we’d love to hear from you.
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If you want to help our support of families going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey, you can donate via the link below.
- The Little Miracles Trust provides support to families of premature or sick full-term babies as they make their journey through Neonatal Intensive Care, the transition home, and onwards. We do not receive any Government funding and are entirely reliant on the generosity of individuals, companies and organisations in the form of donations, value-in-kind donations, grants, sponsorship and fundraising events to supplement operating costs and fund our services and initiatives.
- As we are a registered charity (CC56619) with Charities Services New Zealand we will send you an IRD compliant tax receipt – this will happen automatically by return email.