Baby Miriam: A New Life in the Time of COVID

Hello everyone! We would like you to meet Miriam Caeli M. Sarte, an incredibly brave girl who is just now 12 days old and she was born only at 27 weeks so she's severely premature. She had to be taken out of mommy's wound early because the placenta which was supplying oxygen and nutrients had detached from mommy's uterus and mommy was bleeding internally. In fact, mommy and daddy thought we had lost her since we had a bout of heavy bleeding a month after the positive pregnancy test. Every day through the lockdown, mommy was bleeding so we were already grieving for our loss. When the modified enhanced community quarantine was lifted, we bought another pregnancy test and lo and behold, we were still pregnant! I was so worried back then, thinking baby might be alive but gravely deformed, all sorts of negative imaginings were running through our heads. But ultrasound showed she was fully formed and doing well. Even on a more detailed ultrasound aptly called a congenital anomaly test, Miriam was a perfect little baby in mommy's womb...

But nothing really changed in terms of bleeding for mommy. All throughout my pregnancy, I was bleeding daily. On my 23rd week, my OB performed a cervical cerclage on me where my cervix was stitched close to prevent preterm labor. I was placed on a multitude of medicines to keep baby in but all that was in vain as I experienced very heavy bleeding on September 28 and the next day I had to undergo an emergency cesarean section after passing a large blood clot.

That was 12 days ago and now Baby Miriam is still in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit still fighting for her chance to live on this earth. We are doing this fundraiser for her since we are pretty much helpless in assisting her in her fight. It would have been extremely helpful for her recovery if we could do something called Kangaroo Care which is where we parents hold her close to our body, within our clothing, so she can feel as if she was still inside the womb. This is made impossible by the current COVID restrictions. She was intubated on October 2, just day 3 of her life on earth and her breathing was done for her by the machine. On October 8 the ventilator malfunctioned and the little progress she made was erased and she had to be put on 100% oxygen setting on the ventilator. She was also born with a white blood cell count of 24,000 (normal being 14,000). After IV cefuroxime, WBC increased to 40,000 so her antibiotic was changed to cefepime. Her WBC climbed even higher to 70,000 then to 80,000. She was transfused a unit of fresh frozen plasma at just 2 days old, even before her intubation. Her expert pediatrician said in all his years as a doctor, he has never seen so high an infection with the baby still alive and fighting. But that's not all. My brave baby was also found to have atelectasis in her right upper lung (collapse of the lung) and pneumonia which called for frequent suctioning. This is where they insert another tube down her mouth to suck all the mucus secretions that are hampering her breathing. The atelectasis cleared some 2 days ago but the suctioning is still ongoing but thankfully she is now tolerating a 70% oxygen setting. We are praying hard for her continued improvement and that she will be able to breath freely on her own. Please help my baby in her battle. I am deeply saddened that I cannot be with her in the NICU while she is fighting for her life. I spend every minute of my days praying and thinking of ways to help her and posting our plight in social media asking for funding so she may continue to receive pulmonary treatments in NICU is all I can do. We are hoping with the difficulties everyone is facing during this pandemic, some one or some charitable organization would be able to find us and have compassion for my brave little baby who I named after Mother Mary. Please help us in whatever capacity you have, be it a small amount or more importantly through your prayers to our God.