Vernon Hills Suntimes
Story by JOANNA BRODER | Contributor November 21, 2012 11:30AM
Updated: November 21, 2012 11:30AM
Her tiny newborn daughter was only slightly longer than a Beanie Baby when she was born, three months early.
So like most mothers of premature babies, Sola Olu of Vernon Hills had no idea what to expect. Her baby’s early arrival was a shock, but what followed over the next eight months was even more intense.
The baby whose African name is “Angel,” experienced one major health set back after another.
Though breathing well at first, after her first few days of life, Angel had problems because her lungs were so immature. An artery that had failed to fully close required surgery. The baby also had trouble eating, digesting food and gaining weight. As Angel fought survive, her parents struggled over what choices to make for her care.
“Even the doctors after a while are like ‘well we don’t know everything’ and then you realize they do not know everything, and so you’re like ‘ok what do I do now? Even the doctors don’t know ... .’”
Eight years later, Olu, a mother of two, has documented her family’s harrowing tale in the self-published memoir The Summer Called Angel: A Story of Hope on the Journey through Prematurity. (The book is available on Amazon.com, and there is also a link to her book on Olu’s website, www.solaolu.com.)
“I want the book to get across that in all those difficult situations for preemies there’s still hope. They still make it and they still do very well,” Olu said. “There’s hope out there.”
The now 41-year-old Olu, originally from Nigeria, came to the United States 13 years ago to join her husband who was working in the field of Internet technology. Today she works as a project manager in the retail industry, but her true calling, she says, has always been to write.
Her story begins when she was 33, and 28-weeks pregnant with Angel. She went in for a regular check up. Busy with her graduate work and just weeks away from graduation, Olu felt fine. She had no reason to worry that there might be a problem with her pregnancy.
But, her blood pressure was unusually high. A urine test showed high levels of protein. Her doctor old her she had preeclampsia, and that both her life and the life of her unborn baby were in danger. Later that day, when medications failed to bring down Olu’s blood pressure, doctors informed her that she was too sick to carry her baby any longer and that she must have an emergency c-section that night.
“At that point I just, I started crying,” she said.
The neonatologist explained the risks of premature delivery to Olu and her husband Chris. Deafness, blindness, brain hemorrhage and mental retardation, were among them. Shocked, dazed and realizing they were “in big trouble,” Olu delivered her baby by emergency c-section.
The medical team rushed Angel away to work on her without even telling the couple the baby’s sex.
At first Angel, weighing one pound 16 ounces, did well. By her third day of life, she was breathing without the assistance of a ventilator. But shortly thereafter she developed a serious intestinal complication, necrotizing enterocolitis, where the lining of the intestinal wall dies. Although it does not always happen, Angel’s intestines actually ruptured, Olu said.
Doctors stopped milk feedings and put a drain in the baby’s belly to carry away excess fluids, hoping to clear up the problem within a week. It didn’t happen.
Meanwhile Angel still required surgery to fix her artery. It was done, but Angel did not recover as hoped. She became totally dependent on a ventilator and was soon down with pneumonia.
“By this time we were just like desperate, both desperate and lost,” Olu said of herself and her husband. “One because we didn’t have any family around us.”
The following weeks and months were dark, Olu said. Her daughter was sometimes in critical condition — once the medical team even revived her right in front of her parents’ eyes — and nobody knew if she would survive.
“How did we get here?” Olu remembers asking herself. “How do we leave here?”
The Olus ultimately transferred Angel to the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago where she had two more surgeries.
Just shy of turning eight months old, Angel came home. She weighed just 10 pounds and 13 ounces.
Today Angel is eight years old and for the most part healthy.
“It’s like miracles do happen,” Olu said.
Olu wrote her story for those seeking what she needed during Angel’s ordeal. “You want to hear only stories of hope. And that’s why I’m writing,” she said.
Her husband also wants the book to inspire other parents of preemies not to give up. “Those tiny things, premature babies, are much stronger than we think,” he said, and added a note of support. “You are the best advocate for your child. No matter what the doctors say, try and seek a second opinion.”
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