HISTORY

Hi. Ok now that I think this is working I am going to post more. Well Adam and I (Kimberly) met in 1996, started dating in 1997, got married in 2001, got pregnant in 2005, and will deliver baby boy Jackson Devore Burgess in late February or early March 2006. We were so excited when we found out we were expecting our first child, words can not describe the joy we both felt. Our joy however shortly turned to concern for our unborn child. When I was approximately 29-30 wks pregnant (late December 05) we learned he (Jackson) had a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). This is condition where the diaphram does not close completely. When this happens it allows abdominal contents to go into the chest cavity. The abdominal contents in the chest do not allow the lungs to grow and develop at a normal rate. They also push the lungs and heart to one side of the chest. For more information on CDH please see my links. Jackson's defect is on the left side causing his heart and lungs to be pushed to the right. Also because the defect is on his left side, the left lung is more affected then the right. We immediately started receiving more specialized care. Including a fetal echo (sono of baby's heart) and fetal MRIs. From our MRIs at this point it looks as though he has very little left lung tissue. The national statistics for babies with this condition is about 50% survival rate, and occurs in approximately 1 in every 2,000-5,000 births. I was very lucky to find a web site of another mother who had experienced this herself. She was also from the Dallas Texas area. She posted on her website about a hospital in Houston that had pediatric surgeons specialized in this problem. I was able to make appointments with the doctors in Houston, and shortly after those appointments knew he had to be born in Houston to receive the best care. We made the decision to deliver in Houston at the end of January. We actually got to Houston on February 12th, and are there now awaiting his delivery.