Our Baby Lorena was born with an Omphalocele

on January 16, 2008.

We did not know this was going to happen as it was missed with the ultrasounds.

Within her 1st 26 hours of her life and after all kinds of tests & the

operation we found out about more & more difficulties found in her body.

- The large omphalocele (see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalocele ) had her intestines as well as part of her liver in it coming out of her body.

- She also has a hole in her heart called an ASD which may need to be operated when she is 2-4 years old. ASD in short is a hole between the two upper heart chambers (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_septal_defect ) and the ultra sound last fall did not show any signs of closure.  If it were to close it would typically do so before she is two years old, else it would mean heart surgery for her in the near future, something we'd rather avoid as it exposes her to a lot of other complications/risks.  We would covet the prayers of you all for our little girl. 

- She had a cavity in her diaphragm called a Diaphragmatic Hernia see

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congenital_diaphragmatic_hernia )

in which part of the liver had grown into a curl.

- Her bowels had two outlets one to her bum and one to the navel.

- Her appendix was on the wrong spot too.

On the 2nd day she was operated successfully.

- the intestines & liver were put back inside her body.

- The diaphragm was fixed and the liver taken out of the cavity.

- Her bowels were operated on to remove the 2nd outlet to the navel.

- Her appendix was removed.

On the 5th day things went wrong and she almost died as her lung collapsed twice and she was intubated and put on a ventilator to keep her breathing.

On the 7th day she got a big wound on her foot called an IV burn.

Following are days of recovery and struggles in feeding.

Below are the updates/emails with pictures I sent out to family & friends.

There is also some added stuff & pictures not send out before.

  comments page for Lorena.

Nederlands onder aan sommige van de eerste paginas.

Onze Baby "Lorena" is geboren met een Omphalocele

We wisten niet dat dit zou gebueren omdat het gemist werd met de echos.

Op de 2de dag is ze met sucses geopereert.

Op de 5de dag ging het verkeert en is ze bijna overleeden.

Op de 7de dag kreeg ze een grote wond op haar voet dat hier een IV verbranding heet.

Verders volgen er dagen van geneezen en moelijkheden met het voeden.

Hier boven de updates/emails met fotos die ik naar family & vrienden verstuurden.

Er zijn ook nog meer fotos die ik niet eerder had verzonden.