Carter’s Story

O Warrior Stories

Written by: Kate Bonczek

Carter was diagnosed with a large Omphalocele when I was just 12 weeks pregnant with him. The doctors' faces were grim and they did not give me hope for a good outcome for him and they told me I wouldn't even make it to 20 weeks. Carter also had a large omphalocele of his liver, intestines, and spleen! Me and my husband decided we were going to give Carter the absolute best shot we could give him! I ended up making it to 39 weeks with him and had a planned c section! Carters heart was also rotated to the right and he had 4 small holes in his heart! Carter was in the nicu for a total of 56 days! For closure we opted for not doing the paint and wait method we instead did the duoderm method or "chip clip" method. When he was just over a month old, he had closure surgery! After surgery he had a bit of a hard time and needed to be intubated for a week. He was able to leave the nicu when he was able to take full feeds, breathe on his own, and be off of pain medication which put us at 56 days! As a result of the closure surgery, he had bilateral inguinal hernias that he had to have repaired at 3 months old!