Baby Dylan almost died...but was saved by his mother's intuition

The Amazing Story of How A Mother’s Intuition and Grandma’s Temper Saved a Baby’s Life

With only 25 weeks to grow in the protection of his mother’s womb, Dylan was born fighting for his life. Weighing in at only 2 pounds and 4 ounces, it became worrisome when his weight plummeted to a mere one pound and 11 ounces. But weight was the least of his parents’ worries. A heart problem, a perforated bowel, and fragile lungs put this 13-inch miracle on a helicopter to his first life-saving operation.

Dylan’s family gathered to wait and pray. After several agonizing hours of waiting, squeezing out every ounce of faith and hope they could muster, the news finally came. They repaired his bowel. He had survived the surgery–a major accomplishment for one so fragile.

The situation was obviously critical. It’s in times like these that parents are forced to trust strangers. They must believe that these are caring people and capable professionals, as they hold life and death in the palms of their hands. As your baby’s life hangs in the balance, it feels no less like your own.

There are two sides to this story of real-life miracles and medicine. Parents aren’t the only ones that must learn to trust strangers.

Medical professionals, to be their best, need to believe in the healing power of a mother’s love and trust her instincts. This can be a difficult thing to do for someone who has dedicated a lifetime to the education and skill. Doctors and nurses rely on data, machines, and research, but that’s not always enough.

With the whirs and twerps of machines humming baby Dylan a lullaby, his worried mom stood beside the sleeping infant. Watching. Waiting. Whispering prayers. Patches of wires covered his little body as he lay in the clear plastic bed with his knees tucked under his tummy and his tiny bottom covered with a diaper too small to fit his big sister’s dolls.

“I hear something,” his mom told the nurse.

“No, all you hear are the machines,” the nurse said as she brushed by.

Another nurse came over, “I hear something,” the mother said again, but her concern fell on ears too busy to hear.

Finally, the physician’s assistant walked by. For the third time, the young mother tried calling attention to the noise that seemingly only she could hear, and once again, she was dismissed.

Her mother-in-law, unable to get too close to the baby, watched from across the room. She caught a glimpse of terror in her new daughter’s eyes and went over to her to ask what was wrong.

“I hear something,” she repeated a fourth time.

“What do you hear?”

Attempting to explain, she made a raspy gurgling sound deep in her throat. Dylan’s grandma immediately went for a nurse, grabbed her by the arm and said, “His mother hears something. This baby needs to be checked. I want him checked now!”

For the first time, the busy nurse actually stopped and listened to his chest with her stethoscope. It seemed for just a moment that all the sounds in the room stopped as the frightened mother watched helplessly, clenching her mother-in-law’s hand. Then it happened. The nurse heard the same sounds his mother had described. Alarmed, the nurse began calling for help. A flurry of white uniforms whirled around the room, each tending to something different. The ventilator was removed. A new tube was carefully inserted.

The highly skilled team of nurses swarmed around the crib. In minutes (that felt like hours) they managed to extract a blob from his tiny, paper-thin lungs. Immediately, he began to breathe easier, and his heart rate, that was hovering around fifteen beats a minute, began to rise.

Relieved and furious all at once, Dylan’s grandma turned to his mother and said, “If you ever think something is wrong with your baby, don’t you let ANYONE shrug you off. This is your baby.”

Her voice carried. The nurse that responded also chimed in. She turned and addressed the crowd of nurses who had gathered to assist, “That’s right. A mother’s intuition has saved many babies’ lives. And this mother’s intuition saved her baby’s life. ALWAYS listen to the mother.”

One out of four actually listened to this young mother. But it took another mother—a grandmother, who had learned through the test of time to stand on her own intuition—to get results. It was the experienced mother and nurse who knew they needed to trust even a new mother’s maternal instincts—his life depended on it.

The moral of the story:

We need good doctors and nurses. As our children grow, we not only depend on them throughout different times in their lives but also on teachers and babysitters. These are people that are all vital in a child’s life. Even so, always remember that all their knowledge must be enhanced by an attentive mother’s love and intuition—it can never replace it. 

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