Jessica’s preemie defied doctors’ prognoses and is now a healthy four-year-old!
When Jessica Wang’s daughter was born three months too soon with a raging infection, doctors said her future looked bleak—if she even survived. But little Dorothy taught them all what strength, hope and girl power can do!
Sitting in New York Presbyterian Hospital, Jessica Wang thought any minute now, her obstetrician would come in and say, “Go home! You and your baby are fine.”
The New York City mom-to-be was 28 weeks along in what had seemed a picture-perfect pregnancy until that morning, when she awoke with a twinge and some spotting.
“Try to drink more water,” the doctor had initially told Jessica, sending her and her husband, Sulei Zhuang, to the hospital just to be safe.
There, they’d heard their baby’s heart drumming, and the nurse gave Jessica a snack while she waited, attached to the fetal monitor. But then, suddenly, the same nurse rushed in with a flurry of other doctors.
“Your baby is very sick. We need to do an emergency C-section stat!”
“We won’t give up on you!” Terrifi
ed, Jessica was whisked to the OR, where her own heart pounded as she waited to hear her baby’s first cry. But Dorothy—her name chosen because it meant “gift from God”— came into the world completely silent.
Before Jessica or Sulei could even see her, nurses rushed barely twopound Dorothy to the NICU. And when the doctor returned, it was with a horrifying diagnosis: Dorothy had somehow contracted listeria, a dangerous bacteria, in utero and was now in sepsis, the infection spreading through her fragile body.
How? Why? What did I do wrong? Jessica sobbed, but there were few answers.
“I’m so sorry. She might not make it through the night,” the doctor said somberly. When they wheeled Jessica to meet Dorothy, tears spilled down the new mom’s face: Her baby girl was only as big as the span of her palms. How can someone so tiny possibly even find the strength to fight? Jessica wondered sadly. Dorothy did survive that night— and the next, and the next. But though the infection was now under control, she suffered severe brain bleeding.
“Your daughter will face many mental and physical disabilities,” the doctor explained. “You can stop the medical intervention, let her feel your love and say goodbye; or we can keep trying to save her.” Jessica looked at Sulei. “We are not giving up on our daughter!” they announced.
So as Sulei read up on prematurity, then played MP3S of classical music for Dorothy, Jessica began a blog.
This is the story of a little fighter. It is a love story, because the moment we met Dorothy, we loved her . . .
In the coming days, they posted photos of Dorothy flaring her nostrils— a sign she was trying to breathe without the ventilator— and Jessica massaging Dorothy’s little brow, which was constantly furrowed as if in concentration.
As the days ticked by, doctors wanted to put a shunt in Dorothy’s brain to reduce the risk of swelling, but she had to be four pounds to have the surgery.
“Come on! Girl power,” Jessica whispered. And as postcards from her blog readers poured in from around the world, they read them aloud to Dorothy, praying she would feel the love.
Proof of miracles
Shemust have, because her breathing improved. Soon, she no longer needed oxygen, and ultrasounds showed her brain bleeds stopped! And, after 115 days, weighing 4 1/2 pounds, Dorothy went home— no surgery needed.
Still, Dorothy was susceptible to infection. And as weeks became months, she couldn’t yet lift her head or babble like other babies her age.
So Jessica and Sulei took Dorothy to countless therapies. And at Dorothy’s one-year checkup, the doctor marveled, “Little girl, you sure proved me wrong!”
In time, Dorothy caught up, taking her first steps and piping, “Mama!” And today, the four-year-old not only speaks both English and Mandarin but sings songs from Frozen and tells everyone at her preschool, “I’m brave and strong!”
“She’s our amazing gift, teaching us how powerful hope can be,” Jessica says. “Love is always the answer!”
— Lisa Iannucci
Miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something more than see.” what we PEGGY NOONAN