The Power of Touch

A Sister's Helping Hand
Who can measure the special bond of twins?
by Nancy Sheehan
Reader's Digest - May 1996
Pages 155-156

Condensed from Worcester Telegram & Gazette
November 18, 1995
Heidi and Paul Jackson's twin girls, Brielle and Kyrie, were born October 17, 1995, 12 weeks ahead of their due date. Standard hospital practice is to place preemie twins in separate incubators to reduce the risk of infection, which was done for the Jackson girls in the neonatal intensive care unit at The Medical Center of Central Massachusetts in Worcester.
Kyrie, the larger sister at two pounds, three ounces, quickly began gaining weight and calmly sleeping her newborn days away. But Brielle, who weighed only two pounds at birth, couldn't keep up with her. She had breathing and heart-rate problems. The oxygen level in her blood was low, and her weight gain was slow.
Suddenly, on November 12, Brielle went into critical condition. She began gasping for breath, and her face and stick-thin arms and legs turned bluish-gray. Her heart rate was way up, and she got hiccups, a dangerous sign that her body was under stress. Her parents watched, terrified that she might die.
Nurse Gayle Kasparian tried everything she could think of to stabilize Brielle. She suctioned her breathing passages and turned up the oxygen flow to the incubator. Still Brielle squirmed and fussed as her oxygen intake plummeted and her heart rate soared.
Then Kasparian remembered something she had heard from a colleague. It was a procedure, common in parts of Europe but almost unheard of in this country, that called for double-bedding multiple-birth babies, especially preemies.
Kasparian's nurse manager, Susan Fitzback, was away at a conference, and the arrangement was unorthodox. But Kasparian decided to take the risk.
"Let me just try putting Brielle in with her sister to see if that helps," she said to the alarmed parents. "I don't know what else to do."
The Jacksons quickly gave the go-ahead, and Kasparian slipped the squirming baby into the incubator holding the sister she hadn't seen since birth. Then Kasparian and the Jacksons watched.
No sooner had the door of the incubator closed then Brielle snuggled up to Kyrie - and calmed right down. Within minutes Brielle's blood-oxygen readings were the best they had been since she was born. As she dozed, Kyrie wrapped her tiny arm around her smaller sibling.
By coincidence, the conference Fitzback was attending included a presentation on double-bedding. This is something I want to see happen at The Medical Center, she thought. But it might be hard making the change. On her return she was doing rounds when the nurse caring for the twins that morning said, "Sue, take a look in that isolette over there."

"I can't believe this," Fitzback said. "This is so beautiful."

"You mean, we can do it?" asked the nurse.

"Of course we can," Fitzback replied.

Today a handful of institutions around the country are adopting double-bedding, which seems to reduce 

the number of hospital days. The practice is growing quickly, even though the first scientific studies on it didn't begin until this past January. But Heidi and Paul Jackson don't need any studies to know that double-bedding helped Brielle. She is thriving. In fact, now that the two girls are home, they still steep together - and still snuggle.

A Mother's Touch

A couple were told by doctors they should say goodbye to their severely ill newly born baby but were astounded when a hug from his mother brought him out of a coma.

  Adam Cheshire was just a day old when he stopped breathing and started suffering violent seizures due to a brain infection.

He slipped into a coma and was placed on a life support machine while doctors battled to save him.

Parents Charlotte and Chris Cheshire from Telford, Shropshire, were told to say their goodbyes and to take a final photograph of their son.

Yet, Adam astounded medics when he started showing signs of life after a cuddle from his mother.

The 16-month-old boy's recovery has been described as a 'miracle' and now Adam has taken his first steps.

Mrs Cheshire, 34, said: "They were convinced he was going to die.
"His entire body started to shut down. He was blue and shaking with convulsions.
"For a number of days, I was only allowed to gently stroke Adam's leg or arm before they encouraged me to hold and cuddle him.
"They told me skin-to-skin contact is very important. Your baby needs to know you are there.
"Adam is our miracle. He just refused to give up."
Adam was born at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shropshire, weighing a healthy 7lb 3oz.
But the next day, Mrs Cheshire, noticed he was making a strange grunting noise and wouldn't feed.
Midwives immediately realized something was wrong and took Adam away for tests.
Mrs Cheshire, who is training to be a vicar, said: "Shortly after, I tried to get out of bed and was suddenly in agonizing pain.
"After helping me back into bed, doctors diagnosed me with a full pelvic split, which meant all the bones in my pelvis had separated from each other.
"I couldn't even walk.
"Chris had left the hospital about an hour earlier to get some rest after the long night of helping me through labour.
"He had only just got home when I rang him in tears to say that Adam had been taken away because he was sick."
Mr Cheshire, 47, a systems engineer, raced back to the hospital to find Adam was in neonatal intensive care, where he had collapsed and had stopped breathing.
His organs began to shut down and he was having constant seizures.
Doctors put Adam on a ventilator to breathe for him and kept him an induced coma.
The couple's health visitor was also put on stand-by to deal with bereaved parents.
Mrs Cheshire said: "When Chris came back to my room, he explained what little he knew. We sat holding hands and cried together."
Three days later, Adam was diagnosed with Group B Strep Meningitis.
Pregnant women can transmit the disease to their newborns at birth.
Babies who survive can be left with speech, hearing, and vision problems as well as being permanently disabled.
Mrs Cheshire said: "A doctor came to see me to explain that while Adam was still alive and that they would do their best to treat him, that his life was very much in danger.
"By then, I was determined to go and see him.
"It took two hours to get me into a wheelchair lined with pillows, but despite my tears, I refused to give up.
"I'll never forget how I felt looking into that incubator for the first time. He had more wires attached to his tiny body than I have ever seen.
"The midwife told us to take a photo and we feared it would be the only one we ever had of our son."
Over the next week, his parents could only watch while their son fought for life.
They were warned that even if Adam lived, he could be brain damaged, epileptic, suffer cerebral palsy and a range of other disabilities.
But he refused to give up.
His breathing slowly improved and a few days later, doctors were able to take him off the ventilator.
On Mothering Sunday, Mrs Cheshire was finally able to hold her son for the first time since he had been ill and Adam opened his eyes for the first time.
Over the next few days, she spent up to twelve hours a day sitting in a rocking chair while Adam slept in her arms.
After being fed tiny amounts of milk through a tube for the first few weeks of his life, Adam began to breastfeed.
Skin-to-skin contact, also known as the 'kangaroo care' technique after the way kangaroos hold their young in a pouch next to their bodies, means the mother acts as a human incubator to keep babies warm, stimulated and fed.
Mrs Cheshire said: "It was incredibly traumatic to be separated from Adam. It felt fabulous to hold him in my arms.
"The moment he opened his eyes was incredible. I knew that if he was waking up, he would survive.
"In tiny, baby steps, Adam began to grow stronger.
"His seizures reduced and then stopped. His first MRI came back with some small spots of brightness which appeared to indicate brain damage, but it was too early to tell."
However, after three weeks in hospital, Adam, who has a hearing impairment, was well enough to go home to be with his parents and step-brother, George, ten.
A more recent MRI scan showed most of the brightness that indicated brain injury had disappeared.
Mrs Cheshire said: "It's been a continuing journey. We are so proud of him.
"Adam recently took his first steps unaided. It's another tick of the check list. Everything he does is incredibly amazing.
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