'A Big Miracle:' Mother recounts daughter's premature birth
5/10/2017
This article originally appeared in Current-Argus and was written by DeJanay Booth. The original article can be found here.
Geraldine Navarrette was 24 weeks pregnant, expecting her first child, when she began to feel pain in her lower back.
The pain was unbearable, she said, and she asked her father Joe Navarrette to rush her to the hospital.
They arrived at the Carlsbad Medical Center at about 3 a.m. on June 19, 2011. Three hours later — at 6:13 a.m. — Brook'Lynn Navarrette was born.
She weighed only one pound, three ounces.
The now 25-year-old mother was told that her daughter's premature birth meant she may not survive.
"It was definitely scary for everyone. Brook'Lynn was so immature," said Lori Zink, a pediatrician who helped deliver the baby. "She couldn't breathe on her own. She was kicking and fighting and crying."
Zink, who worked at CMC at the time, said less than half of U.S. babies born at 23 to 24 weeks survive. She was uncertain if Brook'Lynn would live, and, if she did, what medical problems she would face.
Zink said Brook'Lynn was immediately placed in an open incubator to check her temperature and insert breathing tubes. An IV was placed in her belly button.
The baby was transferred to University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, for further care.
Navarrette did not get to hold Brook'Lynn when she was born, but her daughter's cries were enough comfort for her. She believed that her daughter was a fighter.
"I was stressed. But once I heard her cry, I was like, 'Maybe she's going to be OK,'" Navarrette said. "She was born with sass and she has a lot of it."
Zink said the staff at the hospital even gave tiny Brook'Lynn a nickname.
"We called her our little rock star," Zink said.
Zink said that she typically sees a baby born that early at least once a month. But being a part of Brook'Lynn's birth was rewarding.
"You never know. There’s no way to predict. You don’t know which baby is going to be OK and which is going to have problems. You don't know the odds," Zink said. "It was a wonderful experience, makes you keep wanting to do what you do."
For three months Navarrette watched her daughter grow from a distance. She spent three weeks by the side of her incubator, before returning to work and only making the journey to visit her daughter on weekends. Navarrette called the hospital from home every three hours as Brook'Lynn was being fed or having her temperature checked.
"I got to watch her fingernails grow. One week, she opened her right eye first and then the next week she opened her left eye," Navarrette said. "They had covered her with plastic, it looked like, because she couldn't hold her own body temperature."
Geraldine Navarrette said she and her daughter Brook'Lynn have formed a close bond following Brook'Lynn's premature birth.
Navarrette said Brook'Lynn had two eye surgeries while in Lubbock, to prevent her from becoming blind, and a third eye surgery in Carlsbad. She had a final surgery in May 2013 to correct the positioning of her eyes, which were crossed.
Brook'Lynn was officially discharged from Lubbock in September 2011. By then, she weighed four pounds.
Navarrette said she barely slept the first night she was home with Brook'Lynn, where she quickly learned that her daughter was not a fan of taking a bath.
"It was like putting a cat in the water," she said, laughing.
The mother watched her daughter recover from surgery and learn to crawl — finally grasping the concept to walk before her second birthday.
Despite her weight, eye surgeries and trouble walking, Navarrette said Brook'Lynn does not have any medical issues.
Today, the 5-year-old, who will celebrate her sixth birthday in June, loves the color blue, bacon, and enjoys showering her brother, 1-year-old Noah Campos, with hugs and kisses.
"As of today, she is right where she needs to be in her age group. Her personality is awesome, very sweet and well behaved," she said. "My baby girl will always have a great story to tell."
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