Baby Survives Serious Birth Defect

A Green Country couple counts their blessings after giving birth to a baby girl with serious health problems.  After receiving some bad information from a local doctor, the couple wants to raise awareness of a deadly birth defect.  News On 6 anchor Jennifer Loren reports they also want people know there is help and there is hope.

Seven-month-old LaneyKate is a miracle of modern medicine.  When her parents, Carrie and Brandon Daniels, found out they were having a baby girl, they also found out she had a birth defect called CDH, Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.  The baby's stomach and intestines were forming in her chest.  That left no space for her lungs to grow.

"The first diagnosis that we received was that it was going to be very, very tough.  That she would probably have to have a procedure inutero and we would have to choose one of four hospitals in the country," said Carrie Daniels.

Hoping to give LaneyKate the best chance of survival the Daniels chose Philadelphia.  But, the night before they made their move across the country, they found out there was help right here in Tulsa.

St. Francis Hospital has a team of specialists who work specifically on CDH babies.  The machine necessary to keep CDH babies alive is called an ECMO.

"I have a team of about 12 nurses that run the machine. Of course, they love their job because without it the patients wouldn't survive," said ECMO coordinator Judy Toman.

"And, he took us in with open arms hearing about the information we were just given and just completely loved us and told us that she was going to have a tough time and that it was going to be hard and that the team here was just great and that they had the highest survival rate in the region," said Carrie Daniels.

And not only did LaneyKate survive after birth, surgery and 34 days on the ECMO machine, she is thriving.

Mom and dad say they couldn't be happier with the care they got at Tulsa's Saint Francis.