Our beautiful baby girl, Madilyn Rae, was born February 15, 2008. We had a perfect full-term pregnancy, and Madilyn was born via c-section since she was breech. She was a healthy 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and 19" long. We took our angel home four days later.

During our first evening home, Madilyn was very lethargic and would not eat. She then began vomiting green bile. We rushed her to the ER at our local hospital, and she was admitted to the NICU where they proceeded to run tests to try to determine a diagnosis. We waited three agonizing days before they determined that she had a malrotated small intestine. We live in Wausau, Wisconsin, and they do not have the capability to handle a baby as sick as she was.

Madilyn was flown by helicopter to Meriter Hospital, two hours south of our home, to have emergency surgery to try to repair her intestine and save her life.

Her father and I drove to Madison and waited in her assigned NICU room for her to come out of surgery. The emotions we had are indescribable. She was finally wheeled in with a team of doctors and nurses and her surgeon, Dr. Shabaan.

It was from Dr. Shabaan that we were told that things could go either way for her and all we could do is hope she stayed strong and pulled through. It was devastating news. It felt like we were in a bad dream–it seemed so surreal–you never expect anything like this to happen to your baby.

We waited the next few days to see how she recovered from her first surgery. Thankfully, she did well so they were able to go ahead with her second surgery five days later. Dr. Lund performed the second surgery to remove any dead intestine and reconnect her intestines- the surgery went beautifully. Although Madilyn did lose half of her small intestine, at this point, we knew she would live and that was the best news we ever heard.

The next milestone was to see if she would be able to gain weight and absorb nutrients on her own–it was a very long process. But again, the nurses and doctors were incredible, and she slowly, but surely, started to gain weight and was able to be taken off her TPNs and have milk from a bottle!! It was amazing!

She spent a total of 25 days in the NICU with the wonderful doctors, nurses, and surgeons helping her recover. It is because of the wonderful staff of nurses and doctors–especially Dr. Shabaan and Dr. Lund–that our daughter is with us today. She is a very healthy 7-month-old baby girl; she is in the 80th percentile for weight and length, which is truly remarkable.

We can't say thank you enough.

Chelsea