Bensalem family thanks nurses, prepares for 1st Mother's Day together after baby's long NICU stay
A grateful family said thank you Monday to the team that saved their premature baby in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
It was a special reunion for the nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit at Jefferson Abington and the Krause family from Bensalem.
Baby Alton Krause spent 142 days in the NICU after he was born prematurely in September, weighing just 1 pound.
"I'd never seen a baby that tiny," mom Kayla Krause said. "So it was just scary."
Alton was born when she was just 22 weeks pregnant, four months before his due date.
"At 22 weeks, we talk about that in neonatology as the gray area or the borderline of viability," Dr. Eddie Chang, a neonatologist at Jefferson Abington, said.
Chang said Alton developed a lung condition and was treated with a high-frequency jet ventilator.
"The way it works is actually it pulses really tiny breaths into the baby's lungs on the order of 300 to 400 times a second," Chang said. "When we see babies like Alton survive, I think that this machine is one critical piece for that to happen."
Alton now weighs 12 pounds and is meeting all his milestones.
His parents say visiting the NICU team was a homecoming and they're filled with gratitude.
"They saved his life," Kayla Krause said. "They were like second moms to him."
Doctors say Alton defied the odds by surviving without any complications.
"I always had faith that he was going to be OK," dad William Krause said, "but, you know, it's still, it was just a scary time."
Now, the couple is getting ready to celebrate their first Mother's Day with Alton.
"We found out last year on Mother's Day we were pregnant. So, this year to have him home and with us is just an incredible feeling," Kayla Krause said.