Saint’s Story
O Warrior Stories
Written by: Mia Renee
I found out I was pregnant with Saint on February 11, 2023. I was thrilled about the news as well were my other two children. I got my first ultrasound at 10 weeks and everything went well. I was so excited I paid for another ultrasound to find out the gender early. On March 28th, I left work early with much anticipation on seeing my little one. They confirmed he was indeed a boy but once we continued the ultrasound tech fell silent then proceeded to say “I’ll let the doctor come in and take a look as well”. I knew at that moment something was wrong. The doctor then proceeded to confirm that Saint did indeed have an omphalocele. So many questions ran through my mind. I had never heard of it. And it seemed as if they weren’t to informed on the situation either. My doctor proceeded to refer me to UAB - 3 and a half hours from home in Birmingham Alabama, because their doctors have more experience with treating children with omphaloceles. I spent countless hours looking for information and ended up finding the MOO Community on Facebook. Seeing all the families share their own experiences gave me so much hope at a time I felt uncertain about what was going on with my own life.
On September 22nd I gave birth to Saint Rozias Thornton via c-section at UAB. He was born with a large O containing his liver, right kidney and some intestines. He was absolutely breathtaking. He was immediately transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Alabama. Once he was settled in, his doctors began to run a series of tests on Saint. The doctors discovered that his kidneys were placed differently than normal and he had two little holes in the ventricles of his heart. To say I was terrified would be an understatement, yet the joy I felt from him just being here overpowered everything else. I knew he was strong and that was what I had to stick to in order to get through all of my anxiety. His pediatric team decided that we would do the paint and wait method, and as time progressed we introduced him to compression. Saint had issues with tolerating his feeds by mouth so he did end up getting a pic line and on a feeding tube for 12 days. On November 9th, after 48 days in the NICU and by the grace of God, we were finally able to take Saint home.
Our journey dealing with omphalocele still continues today. We are still awaiting closure surgery, and dealing with his other issues one day at a time. But watching him grow and seeing just how strong these O warrior babies are has given me hope that he can overcome anything. I truly thank god for my Saint and everything he has done for us.
