Hope for Aubrie Starr with Pulmonary Complications from Birth

Aubrie Starr was born Feb 12, 2013, as she took her first breathe her lung collapsed.

She went straight to NICU.

There they found she had pneumothorax, collapsed lung, respiratory distress syndrome, pulmonary hypertension, hypo-tension, anemia,  hydronephrosis, and sepsis. She was flown to Levines Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, NC. where she was to be placed on Echmo. when she arrived the surgical team was ready to start the procedure when a doctor there was able to stabilize her enough, she did not need the echmo, although the machine sat beside her bed for days.

She received a blood transfusion. She was placed on an oscillator, nitric oxide, had a UVC line, UAC line, PCVC line and a chest tube. She was given amoxicillin, Viagra, hydro-cortisone, epinephrine, dopamine, morphine and triple mix. We began to see improvement and began t wean her from her medications and she was taken off the nitric oxide and oscillator after about a week.

She was placed on a conventional ventilator for another week. She was finally excavated. At two- weeks-old Aubrie was placed on nasal cannula continuous flow oxygen. It was then I held her for the first time. It was then we realized we still had a long road ahead. We were finally moved to a progressive unit for about a week to monitor her oxygen needs and her milk intake. Aubrie was released at 3 weeks old. She requires oxygen all day everyday. She can’t make it without her O2.

When we went for a one month follow up with cardiology we were told that  her pulmonary hypertension had become worse than it presented on the day she was born. She was place on revatio 2.5 mg every six hours. We went back for another echo and still no change. She is now on 5mg revatio every 6 hours.

She is a little fighter and she will continue to fight everyday of her life. She will be limited on her abilities. She will face doctors and specialist each month from here on out. Recently she was also diagnosed with reactive airway disease which complicates her PH.

Please keep our family in your prayers!