Mile 4

By the time she hit 25-weeks gestation, Savanna was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia. When her symptoms weren’t responding to medication, she knew that there would be trouble ahead, and that this birth would be unlike her others. When the doctor showed Savanna her blood work, along with seeing her concerning blood pressures, she knew it was time to deliver for both her own safety and baby Margo’s. Through Savanna’s background as a nurse, the Bullers knew what they were getting into when they found out that their baby would have to be born 15 weeks early. Weighing only 595 grams, or a little more than one pound, Margo was intubated right away and taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital where Savanna delivered. The care team became extremely concerned when Margo’s abdomen began to turn blue and swollen all while she was struggling to breathe, and made the decision to have her transported to Manning Family Children’s when Margo was 20 days old, so that she could be in the care of the hospital’s Level IV NICU team and in a facility with a comprehensive pediatric surgery team.​

Dr. Barkemeyer and the rest of the neonatology team at Manning Family Children’s assured the family that as long as Margo was fighting and trying to live, that her care team would keep fighting with her.​ Margo was soon diagnosed with NEC, inflammation of the intestines that occurs most often in premature babies and can be life threatening. Margo was intubated and doctors decided surgical intervention would be needed immediately because part of her intestine began to necrose, or die. Pediatric Surgeon, Dr. Jessica Zagory, was brought on to Margo’s case and performed a procedure to relieve Margo’s abdomen of the infection that was causing damage. The days after her first procedure were touch and go for Margo as she remained in critical condition. Margo continued to fight, and was eventually ready for a big operation, an exploratory laparotomy on Margo, in which she removed the part of the intestine that was dead, and created an ostomy, which allowed Margo to grow bigger and stronger before her next surgery – which is exactly what she did. Although the odds were been stacked against her from the moment she was born, Margo continued to break through every milestone. Margo spent more than 9 months in the NICU, and was finally ready to go home a chucky, 11-poud baby, rejoining her siblings and parents at home in Lake Charles last summer. Today, she is almost walking, off of her G-tube, and hitting milestones they never thought she would be able to hit!