‘Little miracle baby’
Published: May 22, 2006
Chris and TaKara Huber’s home is filled with the kind of soothing peace and quiet one anticipates within settings known to quaint, rustic towns like Enterprise. But the calm is a rare commodity. One the family has earned. It’s a stillness that followed a storm of emotions centering around a barrage of health concerns the Hubers’ 9-week-old twin girls have faced since birth.
Today the family is grateful to family members, friends and Utah communities that helped them weather the storms, and they are now looking ahead to better days.
“We just consider ourselves the luckiest, most fortunate parents ever - for how rough the girls have had it. But they sure are cute, and they sure are worth it,” said Chris Huber, a basketball point and shooting guard who spent one year at Dixie State College and recently finished three years with Utah State University.
“I’m definitely hoping they have a lot better life than they’ve had so far so we can just calm down and be a normal family,” said TaKara as she rocked BrynLey, now just over seven pounds, a weight that’s significantly improved since she and her tiny twin sister were born - weighing then just more than three pounds.
Rough entry
Before BrynLey and KamBrey were born, TaKara spent her days working as an assistant physical therapist to help put Chris through school as he worked toward earning his degree in business management. But 29 weeks into the pregnancy, abdominal pains sent TaKara by Life Flight from Logan to Ogden’s McKay-Dee hospital. There she and Chris spent three weeks as her daily contractions began and then dissipated. It would be only the beginning of many health complications for the girls.
On March 11, as the Aggies faced the Reno Wolfpack at the Western Athletic Conference, Chris remained at TaKara’s side as the twins were born - just before tip off.
“BrynLey had the rough entry into the world,” said Chris, who spoke of her breech birth and breathing complications that placed her on ventilators. Later, at one and a half weeks, doctors found heart complications and performed surgery on both girls. After a total of five weeks in Ogden’s new bornintensive care unit, or NICU, the family returned home, This time, to their new home in Enterprise.
Weathering Storms
The tube still attached to BrynLey’s tiny wrist - it leads to a peripherally inserted central catheter, or PICC, that delivers Ampicillin and Gentamicin directly to her heart - now seems minimal compared to the five IV’s that only weeks ago were still inserted into her head, hands and feet.
“It’s one thing to see it on an adult but when its on a baby it pretty much consumes them,” said Chris. “Her mouth was clear full of tubes,” TaKara added.
Only three days after the couple had returned to their home in Enterprise, BrynLey became fussy and inconsolable, a concern for the Hubers, who say their daughters are generally happy. BrynLey’s condition worsened as her lips, skin and fingernails turned white and her eyes became glassy - an appearance that reminded Chris of funeral scenes.
The couple left KamBrey in the care of her grandmother, a close neighbor, as they rushed BrynLey to Dixie Regional Medical Center, where a battery of tests were run. While the staff determined BrynLey was experiencing apnea, erratic breathing patterns, the remaining complications were still unknown. The three were flown to Primary Children’s Medical Center where Chris found a moment alone with her.
“She didn’t look like her - you just kind of break down,” he said.
A spinal tap revealed BrynLey’s condition as Strep B spinal meningitis, but hearing the news left the couple feeling numb, surreal.
“At that point the doctor wasn’t real positive about her making it,” said TaKara. “They didn’t come out and tell us she wasn’t going to make it, but more or less they said she doesn’t have a good chance. That’s when we started calling family and letting everyone know,” she said. “Nobody ever thinks anything will happen to them,” said Chris.
Better Days
Under the staff’s care at Primary Children’s, BrynLey began a quick recovery and returned home earlier than expected. Late Tuesday night, her parents laid her beside her sister KamBrey in the crib and the couple, convinced their daughter’s both changed from the events, watched the girl’s reunion tentatively. “They just stared and stared at each other in the crib,” said TaKara.
For KamBrey, BrynLey’s return home had an immediate calming effect.
Today the Hubers call BrynLey their “little miracle baby,” and attribute her healing to God and a community-wide effort of support.
“She’s come home well before anyone thought she would. She’s still sick and we have to take care of her, so we’re just really trying to love her up and keep her comfortable. But we still have to do home health care,” he said while administering the medicine to BrynLey as TaKara rocked and soothed her.
While the family survived solely on Chris’s scholarship check during those weeks, Chris soon begins work at a St. George-based mortgage company. But the Hubers focus will center on the remaining 12 of 21 days of post-operative rehabilitative care for BrynLey while nurturing the two sisters together.
“It’s been nice to just be able to worry about her. I still don’t comprehend the severity of the disease she had, but she almost wasn’t here with us,” said Chris, who spoke at length of the “humbling and amazing” experience of watching communities throughout the state from Enterprise to Logan show kindness and an outpouring of support for the girls and the family.
“So many people have done so much and we really want to say ‘thank you.’ She’s home early and I really think God had a big hand in it,” Chris said.
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