Some people are born fighters.
Seven-month old Hollister resident Abagail Rodriguez is one of
those people.
Hollister – Some people are born fighters.
Seven-month old Hollister resident Abagail Rodriguez is one of those people.
Abagail’s mother, Michelle, gave birth to a healthy, 8-pound, 10-ounce baby girl in January at St. Louise Regional Hospital without a single complication.
But Michelle, her husband Bryan and their 4-year-old son, Marcus’s new-baby bliss was short-lived. Beginning the day they brought Abagail home, the Rodriguez family knew that although their daughter acted like a normal newborn something was dreadfully wrong – she was yellow.
Alarmed, the family took 4-day-old Abagail to Hazel Hawkins Hospital for blood tests.
“She was so jaundiced, she was yellow. Orange-yellow, her eyes, everything,” Michelle said. “I was totally petrified. I have a brand new baby, everything was fine, she ate fine, everything – she just looked yellow.”
The tests showed that Abagail’s jaundice levels were off the charts, but no one could figure out why. So the Rodriguez family made the first of many trips to the children’s hospital at Stanford Medical Center.
It was beginning of a long journey through a world of medical tests, alarming diagnoses, the terrifying possibility their newborn may not live and, finally, a cure that seemed miraculous. But the ordeal that took only a couple months left the family with $6 million in medical bills, yet thankful for the tiny fighter whose struggle to survive has inspired them all.
On that first trip to Stanford, doctors performed several procedures and managed to bring the infant’s jaundice levels down to a normal level. But just before she was about to be released, pediatricians discovered Abagail tested positive for Group B Strep – a virus that can be lethal in babies, Michelle said.
“The funny thing is that she never had it (strep), it was a fluke mistake,” Michelle said. “But thank God she tested positive because she had to stay 10 more days for antibiotics and on the fifth day she got really sick.”
So sick that the baby turned deathly white, and suddenly something started protruding from her abdomen.
For three days the hospital’s specialists poked and prodded Abagail, performed ultrasounds and X-rays and at one time thought she was born with an extra organ. But none of the doctors could determine what the enormous mass crowding the baby’s abdominal cavity was, Michelle said.
Abagail was deteriorating so rapidly that Michelle and Bryan gave the doctors permission to open up their 2-week-old baby on the operating table to determine what was making her ill.
“It was supposed to be a three-hour surgery, but two hours into surgery the doctor came out and said, ‘You’re not going to believe what we found,'” Michelle said. “There was a 14-inch long by 3-and-a-half-inch wide cyst that had attached to her vaginal wall, bladder and small intestines and was living off her body… and was pushing everything out. They still have no clue where it came from or how it formed.”
The doctors repaired most of the internal damage, but couldn’t remove the entire cyst from her bladder. More tests will have to be performed as she gets older, her mother said.
But after the roller-coaster medical ride and several weeks of practically living at the hospital, Abagail’s health was improving dramatically and she was almost ready to go home.
“I had just left her, got home from Stanford and my husband said, ‘Stanford just called.’ So I called Stanford and they said Abby had taken a turn for the worse,” Michelle said. “We headed back up there and they were resuscitating her – she wasn’t even alive when we walked in. They said the usual, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez, this isn’t good,’ and my husband and I just bawled.”
Abagail had stopped breathing and essentially died for a short time. Doctors believed she had vomited and aspirated the fluid back in when she received her first real feeding from her mother after living off intravenous fluids for so long.
Abagail’s last hope for survival was a heart/lung bypass machine called “ECMO,” an acronym for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation. The machine would have to serve as Abagail’s heart and lungs because hers were too weak to function on their own, Michelle said.
The machine, which sustained Abagail’s life for about four days, filtered toxic blood out of Abagail’s body and put clean blood in, while pumping oxygen through her body, her mother said.
In order for the baby to be on the machine, she had an IV inserted into the jugular vein on her neck and she had to be put into a drug-induced coma so she wouldn’t accidentally pull the IV loose – causing her to bleed to death, Michelle said.
The machine worked, and doctors gradually weaned Abagail off the support system. She finally made it home several months ago.
“She was like our little Frankenstein baby when we brought her home,” Michelle said, referring to the scar lining Abagail’s entire abdomen where the cyst was removed and the one in her neck where ECMO was attached to her 21-inch-long body.
And while Abagail is recovering surprisingly well, she experienced nerve damage to her left leg and foot, which she can’t use. It’s also too soon to tell if Abagail will experience any physical or mental delays due to the complications.
“It’s a huge waiting game, we’ll just have to see how she progresses,” Michelle said. “It’s been a ride, though. It’s something you see on TV and never think it would happen to you. Ever. But you get through it for the sake of your children. I’ve had my meltdowns, but you find out real quick it doesn’t get you anywhere.”
Abagail’s pediatric nurse, Marie Spencer, has followed the baby’s progress through all the trials and tribulations and believes Abagail should be able to lead a normal life thanks to her inherent “spunk” and will to live.
However the financial strain on her family has been tremendous, she said.
“This is a family who’s really good people who have fallen through the cracks financially,” Marie said. “But the community seems like its pulling together to help, and I’d like to see more services available to this family.”
Services that include subjecting Abagail to constant tests, hospital visits and physical therapy are part of the Rodriguez’s life now, but supplementing the techniques that could enable her to live a normal life come at a price.
And it’s big. Six million dollars, big, Michelle said.
While the family’s insurance will cover the brunt of the medical bills, the company dropped the family from its policy because the baby burned through the amount of money a lifetime policy provides in only a few months, Michelle said. Michelle is a stay-at-home mom, so Bryan has had to pick up several odd jobs in addition to his full-time job as an equipment mechanic to cover the several hundred thousand dollars the couple will have to pay out of their own pocket.
Fortunately, Michelle said the community has rallied to help them, providing emotional support, food and monetary donations. Michelle’s high school pal, Shari Hubbell, who also worked at Michelle’s pediatrician’s office, is organizing a rummage sale and raffle to help raise money for Abagail’s medical bills.
“I had to do something,” she said. “They were dealt those cards that, financially, were so overwhelming.”
While Michelle concedes the ordeal has been nothing short of every parent’s worst nightmare, Abagail’s fight for survival has taught her parents never to take anything for granted. And because much of Abagail’s illnesses were firsts for doctors at Stanford, the family signed a release allowing the procedures and problems to be documented in medical journals for educational purposes, Michelle said.
“If it’s going to help other kids and let doctors find out answers I think that it was well worth it. Maybe that was why she was put here, to find a cure for something else,” Michelle said. “She fought and fought and fought. She is very strong-willed. We’re doomed when she gets older.”
Tickets for the raffle can be purchased at Attitudes and Images at 650 San Benito Street, which will be held Sept. 11 at the Pinnacle Building parking lot. People can also donate directly to the Abagail Rodriguez Medical Fund set up at San Benito Bank.
For more information about the rummage sale and raffle, or to donate to the family, contact Shari Hubbell at (831) 637-4598, or at
hu*****@ga****.com
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or
em*******@fr***********.com
