Heartfelt Blessings
February 20, 2020By: Jodi Rawson
Categories: Maternity, Patient Stories, Pediatrics
When my husband, Joe, and I think about February, we not only think about Valentine’s Day but also heart month and our middle child, Jaxton. When Jax was only 3-4 days old, he gave us the scare of our lives.
Jax was born on November 12, 2014. He came into the world swinging (literally, he swung at his delivery nurses)! Our second child was perfect, just a little yellow from an elevated bilirubin, which caused jaundice. No big deal, right? We went home with an order to return to the hospital in a day for a blood test. The day arrived and the test still showed an elevated bilirubin. We were given the option to treat him at home or come back to the NICU. My gut told me to go to the hospital, so we did.
I remember Jax lying under the special lights intended to lower his bilirubin and treat his jaundice. He wore these stylish shades that protected his eyes from the lights. He was still so tiny but so beautiful.
A Word From Jax
Today, Jax is an energetic five-year-old, and he asked if he could tell the next part of his story. Here are his words. “I was just laying in my incubating thing, getting warm under the bright lights. When my mom noticed my heart was going CRAZY. Nurses and my Dr. Beardman all saved me. I love them for it with my whole heart.”
While Jax gets to tell the feel-good part of the story, his dad and I live with the memory we thought we might lose our son that night.
When I noticed his heart going “crazy,” the nurses were right there, a look of calm in their faces. They adjusted his heart monitor, one way, then another. Slowly, but swiftly, more nurses came in. Still no panic. By now, the unit’s nurse practitioner arrived and our pediatrician, Alejandra Beardman, MD. They all worked to lower his heart rate while keeping us informed.
A Diagnosis
Gradually his heart rate lowered from over 300 beats a minute to a more normal range of 150 beats a minute thanks to IV medications. Dr. Beardman and the nursing staff told us Jax would be transferred to Children’s Mercy for pediatric cardiologists to monitor him. The staff felt a children’s hospital was the best place for our son.
Our diagnosis was PSVT, a random occurrence where his little heart just got caught in a “loop” and could not regulate itself back down. With some monitoring, and an introduction of propranolol, we were on the mend. By the time Jax turned one, we were completely off any medications. We are incredibly blessed and thankful for the doctors and nurses that night who saved our son. Today, Jax still gets to see Dr. Beardman as his pediatrician. We are forever grateful to her and the other doctors and nurses from NKCH and Children’s Mercy who saved our son.
