By Cathy, Mays Landing, NJ USAI developed PROM (felt like I was wetting myself) at 36 weeks. I was never told, I had anything that would of caused this. The nurse made me feel as if this was my fault (that he was small), because I had smoked a couple cigarettes a day. The whole experience was very, very difficult. The worry, the love that I had for my litte son.
PROM at 36 weeksDelivery at 36 weeks.
Story added: 1998-07-22
No one really gave me any information as to the treatment in the NICA. When I was looking at his chart one day, this nurse said to me,"Excuse Me, can I help you?
" I said, I'm just looking at my son's chart. Being 20 years old, I was very intimadated & completely upset by the whole experience. But, my son "David" was beautiful. He continued grow & do well. He was smaller then other babies his age.
After this experience I made sure that he had the best medical care & the best Pediatrians. As he grow he had different symptoms like, Still had very thin skin on his chest & abdomen as he got older (peds drs, all said, some people are born that way, "No BIG DEAL"), flat feet, intoeing (slight turning in at hips) pain in hip, muscle cramps, bruising, slow healing, moderate scaring (elbows, knees, forehead), swallowing problem (with weight loss) completely torn ACL ligament (at 10 1/2).
All the doctors that he ever went to said he was fine. When he was 13 1/2, he developed a perforation of the sigmoid colon. His surgeon's called in a social worker to investage "CHILD ABUSE", because they thought someone had stuck a sharp object up his rectum to perforate the bowel. After, getting over the shock of what they thought, We talked with the SW, I told her that No one hurt my son in this way,so they better look in another direction. She concluded that there was "NO" evidence of abuse. But, the more I asked these surgeons,"What could of caused this, What could it be? " I recieved this responds,"Why worry he's put back together". Can you imagine???? I tried to find the reason, my peds dr. didn't give a diagnosis, neither did the surgeons. I even took him to another surgeon, all he told me was because of the family history of Diverticulitis, it probaly was a congential divticulm. This is "ALL" I recieved from him. Not one of these 5 doctors ever recommended a Genetics Doctor. So, they scheduled to reverse the colostomy, after 4 months. During the recovery the incision stated leaking bowel movement. I asked the surgeon, "If it's leaking on the outside, isn't it leaking on the inside?" He told me "NO".
Well, the bowel had leak inside my son for a bout 4 days. He had sepsis all through his body. When I got him to the Childrens Hospital, he had impressive hemopertoneum, anterior of the sigmoid had opened entirely, hematoma on the liver, free air, fluid, clotted blood, abscessess, 4 perforation of the small bowel. After trying to swallow "ALL" of this, they tell me from looking at the tissue from the bowel & having a Geneticist, just "LOOK & EXAMINE" my son. That he had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Type IV (a connective tissue disorder) which "NONE" of these doctors every diagnosed. Because of "Not" putting together "ALL" the symptoms throught out his life, my beautful,innocent 14 year old son, died a horrible, devastating death. It was diagnosed sooner, my son would still be alive.
PROM - is common to accure in mothers who have EDS, but it's more prone to accure in infants that have EDS, because it's the fetuses cells that make up the placenta. A connective tissue disorder should be another important thing to rule out, when there is PROM.
My life has been devastate, my heart & soul went into my son from the time he was born. "HOW CAN SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN". Because he was premature, all of his life, I worried, I took extra special care of him, I tried to make sure nothing harmed him, my worst fear was that something would happen to him, which made me over-protective. I have faced my "GREATEST FEAR" the death of my son. Please educate yourself on Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (Connective tissue disorder) if you have any of these symptoms.
Thank you