Baby Ella: ‘The Little Miracle’
Published: April 30, 2007
Easter weekend, a baby born near Springfield, Ill., was given less than a 1 percent chance of survival.
Thursday, the infant called one of the sickest babies ever treated at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center got her last tube removed and will soon go home.
Kelly Maintz had a normal pregnancy. But when her baby Ella was born one week early, she and her husband thought Ella wouldn’t make it.
“We accepted the fact that she’s not going to make it,” said Bill Maintz.
Ella had a condition called pulmonary hypertension. She couldn’t breath.
Doctors aren’t sure whether she was born with fluid in her lungs or if her lungs just hadn’t developed enough. But with Ella’s first 10 hours of life, they knew she had to go to Cardinal Glennon.
And that was a long shot. Doctors knew Ella’s chances of even surviving the helicopter ride to St. Louis were very slim.
“They said less than 1 percent to make the transport, then getting on the ECMO was 1-2 percent,” says Kelly.
But Ella made it to Cardinal Glennon and doctors there put her on an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, a last resort machine for babies with no other chance.
Ella spent six days on the machine — her parents knowing that there as a 98 percent chance the machine couldn’t save her.
But it did. Ella defied the odds. And on Thursday, the last tubes were removed.
“She has a special place in everyone’s heart and everyone calls her the little miracle,” said Kelly. “I cried on the way in and I’ll probably cry on the way out.”
Even though Ella was deprived oxygen for so long, doctors say tests show she should live a completely normal life.
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