,
date, she was put on bed rest due to elevated blood pressure. She was induced at 37 weeks, and within a few hours of labor, her baby’s
that causes the normally C-shaped cartilage that protects the windpipe to form a com- plete O. This can result in severe narrowing of the windpipe that presents a variety of breathing and feeding problems. “Sage was born with tracheal stenosis, a narrowing of his windpipe, which required major surgery,” Dr. Brigger explains. “He is the perfect example of the need for the Cen- ter for Pediatric Aerodigestive Disorders and Airway Surgery. We could fix the pipes, but he needed so much more. That’s where the feeding experts came into play.” Kimberly recalls: “Right after Sage’s heart surgery, that’s when our feeding journey began.” Sage had a nasal feeding tube inserted before heart surgery.
heart was in trouble. His double aortic arch created a vascular ring around the trachea and esophagus. “We knew there was a high likeli- hood of me needing an emergency C-section, which is what ended up happening,” Kimberly says. “As soon as he was born, he cried, but then he started gargling. The respiratory team was already there, and they whisked him away. We had no idea what was going on until later that day. By the time I
"He had heart surgery
to correct the double aortic arch at just 8 days old."
got to meet him, he was already intubated and hooked up to all kinds of machines. His CT showed that his double aortic arch was really tight. His breathing was labored, and he was really struggling.” Sage spent the first week of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before being transferred to Rady Children’s, where he underwent surgery to correct the double aortic arch at just 8 days old. But not before he and his family met a Rady Children's doc- tor who was truly going to change Sage’s life. A LIFECHANGING MEETING After an exhausting day of hospital transfers and settling in at Rady Children's, the Blakes met the team from ENT (ear, nose and throat or otolaryngology) and Matthew Brigger, MD, chief of the Division of Otolaryngology at Rady Children’s and a professor of surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine. He also leads the Center for Pediatric Aerodigestive Disorders and Airway Surgery, a multidis- ciplinary team of experts that specializes in complex airway and esophageal disorders. “I had no idea at that time how critical Dr. Brigger would be to our life,” Kimberly says. Dr. Brigger collaborated with John Nigro, MD, who leads the Heart Institute at Rady Children's to use the opportunity when Sage was under anesthesia during heart surgery to look at his airway. He discovered that Sage had a complete tracheal rings, a birth defect
“He was born on April 26, 2018, and he wasn’t able to bottle feed until the end of May,” she says. “I didn’t anticipate any of that. When you have a child born with trauma, you tackle whatever is put in front of you first. We knew about the heart issues, so that’s what we dealt with first. Then after his heart surgery, we learned more about the tracheal rings and how they were affecting his breathing and feeding. After the heart surgery, he was still having so much trouble breathing, so we knew the tracheal rings were causing even more distress.”
"Then after his heart surgery,
we learned more about the tracheal ring and how it was affecting his breathing and feeding."
SAGE’S FEEDING JOURNEY For the next few months, Sage and Kimberly worked with the feeding team to learn how to do something that most of us take for granted: eat. While some of Sage’s physicians wanted him to have the nasal feeding tube for good, Dr. Brigger’s team wanted to help the Blake family feed without it. “He couldn’t nurse, so I had to pump, and I
SUMMER 2023 HEALTHY KIDS MAGAZINE 17
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker