AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 For seven months, doctors and nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St. David\u2019s Medical Center worked around the clock to care for a little girl just beginning her life.<\/p>\n
Her mother, Sheryl Henrickson, was preparing to become a mother for the third time when she learned her unborn daughter had congenital diaphragmatic hernia, or CDH.<\/p>\n
The condition causes a fetus\u2019 abdominal organs to move into the chest, crowding the lungs and preventing them from developing normally. According to the National Institutes of Health, CDH affects about 2.5 out of every 10,000 births.<\/p>\n
Henrickson recalled the moment she realized this pregnancy would be different from her first two.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just remember the ultrasound tech doing her routine thing. We were just chatting. All of a sudden, she became very quiet, and I just knew, my heart dropped, and I just knew something was wrong with our daughter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As the family considered the difficult road ahead, they had to decide where their daughter would receive care.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were talking about moving outside of Austin to get the best care, and it became very clear to us after taking a look at the different hospitals all around, near and far, and interviewing the physicians that we had amazing care here in town, and specifically here at St. David\u2019s,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Henrickson delivered Leni full-term on July 26, 2023, at St. David\u2019s Medical Center. Six days later, Leni underwent diaphragmatic hernia repair surgery and spent seven months in the NICU before she was discharged.<\/p>\n
Looking back, Henrickson said the care team became a source of support for her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just felt so supported and so cared for, and we don\u2019t have family here. I\u2019m grateful that we have such wonderful friends and a good social circle, but the biggest thing was the staff. I think the staff really surrounded us with such love and community and care, and they were wonderful. We feel so blessed that she is where she is today, and I think I attribute a lot of that to the care that she received early on and the ongoing care that we still get today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Jennifer Desireddi, the family\u2019s neonatologist, said CDH can become life-threatening immediately after delivery, which is why babies with the diagnosis need to be born at a facility that can provide advanced care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of variation in congenital diaphragmatic hernia whereby there is a hole in the diaphragm, and the intestines and other organs can sneak up into the thorax, or into the chest, and it can compress the lungs,\u201d Desireddi said.<\/p>\n