Landon’s Story
O Warrior Stories
Written by: Caitlin Borowick
We found out our son, Landon, had an omphalocele at 18 weeks pregnant. My OBGYN had me do routine bloodwork to check my ACH levels. When the results came back in the high range, my OB referred me to a high risk OB to have an anatomy scan ultrasound done to make sure everything was ok with the baby. During the ultrasound, the tech was very quiet so we knew something was not right. After the scan, we were brought into a room and told our son had an omphalocele - a word we had never heard before. We were given a general description of omphaloceles and the doctor explained the statistics for further complications and survival. That appointment was also the first time we were given the option to terminate the pregnancy, which was brought up several times going forward.
We opted to do an amniocentesis and felt a bit of relief when the results came back normal. We went through what seemed like endless follow up appointments from there and eventually decided to transfer our care to Boston Children’s Hospital. Our son was born in September, 2021 at 6lbs 1oz with a large omphalocele containing most of his liver. Our surgeon was able to perform Landon’s closure surgery at 2 days old. Landon spent the next month in the NICU and surgical recovery floor, while Landon gained strength and worked on his oral feeding. Landon’s dad and I stayed at a hotel that month near the hospital and when Landon was moved to the surgical recovery wing, one of us was able to sleep in Landon’s room each night with him. The doctors placed a nasal feeding tube a couple days after Landon’s surgery as he was not taking any food by mouth. We were discharged from the hospital and continued to work on his feeding at home and with weekly feeding appointments at Hasbro Children’s Hospital for the next 6 months. We also continued to monitor Landon’s ASD with Boston Children’s cardiology and had weekly physical therapy appointments to improve Landon’s strength. At 7 months old we opted to work with a third party weaning program and successfully weaned Landon from his feeding tube.
At 2 years old, Landon had another surgery to repair his inguinal hernias. Today, he is a happy 2½ year old that loves to play with trucks and collect rocks and sticks outside. During the pregnancy and the first year of Landon’s life it was often difficult to see beyond the stress of surgery, recovery, and feeding issues, however, we are so happy to have had the support of the O Warrior community to guide us to the other side of it all with our little boy.
