By Suzanne Rhodes

This is what Jami’s babies are up to:

“His twinkle in his eyes you can’t resist.”

“Hunter smiles all the time when you look at him. He has the cutest little face. It lights up his whole face when you smile at him.”

“Quinn says momma and dada, and we are trying to teach him Uh-oh. He says ‘uh, uh, uh,’ and we say ‘ooo.’ It’s so cute!”

Quinn, Liam, and Hunter are triplets, and that is remarkable enough. But what is even more remarkable is that these children, now 16 months old, almost died during Jami’s pregnancy.

She had a rare condition known as Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome that required urgent medical treatment. Time was of the essence. “On Sunday (April 25) we found out that I had to go to Washington [to Seattle Evergreen Hospital]. They said to come now or I had a 90 percent chance of losing all three babies,” Jami said. “We had to fly there on Tuesday. But it would cost $1,200! We couldn’t afford it.” She and her husband, Patrick, live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Patrick’s mother, Penny, found Mercy Medical Airlift on the Internet. “Penny called on Sunday and left a message. She got a call back from Jim Smith. She was crying and happy.”

Smith is MMA’s executive vice president. “In urgent situations like this, we are often able to provide the bridge to potentially life-saving treatment,” he said.

Smith purchased tickets for Jami and Patrick to travel on Tuesday with Alaska Airlines, arriving in time for her afternoon appointment. “He’s very nice,” Jami said. “A huge blessing.”

On Friday morning doctors performed the procedure. “I got a spinal block and could watch on TV while they were doing it. It was kind of neat. I got to see hands, feet and legs. One of the babies was grabbing the camera!” The couple flew back home on May 2.

On July 27, the 23-year-old mother delivered identical triplets: Quinn, Liam and Hunter. “I delivered by C-section six weeks early,” Jami said. She and her husband, Patrick, have another son, Michael, who was only two when his three brothers arrived.

Jami wrote us in August of this year to report that “the boys turned one on July 27 and are thriving, thanks to your program. I was left in tears that night just looking over newborn photos and remembering the scary stuff, and that they would not be here without your program. You gave them the only chance to survive, and I will never forget that!”

by Emily Altmann

Source of growth chart: www.Magic.org (click the image to see it full size)

[Editor’s Note: Emily Altmann is an intern with Mercy Medical Airlift and a graduating senior majoring in English at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, VA.]

Being born with a rare growth disorder has its share of difficulties.  When you’re in the midst of the middle school years, serious medical issues can be a lot to deal with. Just ask twelve-year-old Jacob of New Lenox, Illinois.  Jacob was born with a rare growth disorder known as Russell-Silver Syndrome (RSS).

At a year old, Jacob was diagnosed with the disease.  Children are born with RSS, and though there’s no scientific test for the disorder, doctors can usually diagnose based upon certain characteristics.  Those with it are typically afflicted by slow growth rate, little to no appetite, low muscle tone, asymmetrical growth, and delayed speech development.

“He’s had a lot of issues dealing with being tiny and certain obstacles he’s had to overcome,” says Jacob’s mother, Kathy.  “But all the intervention has helped tremendously.”

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