Join us this week on the CDH radio show as we talk with Sarah Bratcher. She shares her family’s journey with CDH after her son, Xavier, is diagnosed with CDH.
Tune in at 6:00 pm EST, August 10th, 2021 at https://www.blogtalkradio.com/cdh/2021/08/10/august-10-2021-guest-sarah-bratcher.
Listen to archives of the show at http://www.cdhradio.org.
“I have 6 children, my youngest is my CDH’er. He is definitely a miracle. My story started, May 14, 2018, is when I first heard those words at his anatomy scan,” Sarah shared with us when we first asked when she heard the words Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. She added, “I don’t remember much about that day honestly than crying all the way home. That appointment was an hour away. So, I had an hour drive all by myself to just cry, scream, pray and do whatever. I did a lot of praying that day for sure, it was life changing I guess you could say. I had 4 other pregnancies that were healthy. I have twins and even with my twins, I didn’t have anything like this, so it was a shock to me to what was going on.”
Sarah underwent the FETO procedure to give Xavier a better chance at surviving CDH. She went on to share “the balloon stayed in for about 8 weeks and then they removed it. They said usually after they remove it, moms usually go into labor. A week later I was still pregnant, and they were monitoring him, and he was starting to have D-cells, so they decided it was time to do an emergency C-section. He is my only C-section baby. He’s definitely been keeping me on my toes from day one.”
Xavier came out fighting! Sarah shares, “he went 5 days before he had to be placed on ECMO. After he was placed on ECMO, the next day they did his repair surgery. They did say he was missing 75% of his diaphragm and actually his left lung was a lot bigger than they thought and they felt the FETO surgery was a success. The NICU journey was definitely a roller coaster ride.”
Fast forward to today, Xavier is now 2 1/2 years old. He does have some developmental delays due to a genetic mutation that was discovered, but they are working hard to overcome these hurdles. Xavier loves Cocomelon and the Wheels on The Bus Song, they are his favorite!
Tune in to the podcast to hear more about Xavier, his NICU time and more about his genetic mutation and what a miracle he is!
If you would like to share your CDH story, please visit https://cdhi.org/shareyourstory/ for more information.
