Today’s featured cherub is Rakari Christian Harris Jr. Here is what his mom, Chania, had to share:
“Hi everyone, my name is Chania Cowie-Parks, my son’s name is Rakari Christian Harris Jr. Me and his dad found out Rakari had a right side Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia when I was 18 weeks pregnant. The doctors seen it at my first ultrasound appointment and they scheduled me to come back the following Monday to take another ultrasound. At my next ultrasound they told me he had a right sided diaphragmatic hernia. Me and his dad were so confused because we had NEVER heard of it. It was so overwhelming for us to find out that he has a birth defect, especially him being our first kid. We were so confused and scared but we had faith. During my pregnancy I had to have a lot of ultrasounds, I got a MRI, and he got a heart echo while he was in my stomach. I was due November 25th, 2018. I had him November 15th,2018 at 11:42pm, because every time I would have a contraction during my stress test his heart rate would drop. After I had Rakari he was transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Michigan DMC. November 16th, 2018 Rakari had to get put on ECMO. During his time on ECMO, Rakari developed a blood infection. It seemed like every other week his machine would have clots in it. The doctors told us if they had to remove Rakari from the machine before he was ready to get off it, there would be a chance of him passing. But he didn’t, he’s a fighter and he got off ECMO 12/21/18. From that moment forward he was only on the ventilator. He had gotten to 50% on the ventilator then they had to go back up to 100% from him desatting. They don’t know why, but once they ran test on him they discovered he had caught pneumonia. They treated his pneumonia and he started going back down on his oxygen, he eventually got off the oxygen and had a nasal cannula. It was about a week before they put him on room air. They had him on and off of room air and on the nasal cannula for a few days. He is finally completely off the nasal cannula and is now on complete room air, they are trying to get him on the bottle before he comes home and so far all he is taking is 3CCs at the moment which isn’t much but it is a start. He also has pneumonia in his right lung and they are treating his pneumonia for two weeks and the plan is for him to be home by the first week of March. Rakari came home March 11th, he isn’t on oxygen and when he came home he had the feeding tube in for about a good two weeks. He is now on the bottle. Rakari takes 4 ounces of milk every four hours and since he’s been home he’s been the happiest he has ever been.”
