Newborn recovers from COVID-19
Calgary infant now safe at home with family after spending four days in ICU
A Calgary newborn who tested positive for COVID-19 is now safely home with her family, ready for the holidays.
Nora Forrest was born Nov. 22 and got to go home with mom Ceyda Alaf Forrest and dad Ben Forrest later that day.
However, within 36 hours, Ceyda started to feel symptoms of what they would later discover was COVID-19.
“I woke up to nurse Nora and I felt really sick. My head was hurting, my sinuses, and I was coughing,” said Ceyda.
“It got a little better after that, but it really hit me hard that night.”
The next day, Ben had symptoms, and by that Thursday, the whole family went to get tested.
When Nora started showing symptoms, they went to the hospital.
“They were trying to decide if she should go to the regular ward or ICU,” said Ceyda. “The doctors said Nora kept forgetting to breathe.”
She said in that initial confusion, and for the first few days, they weren't sure if they'd get to take Nora home.
Doctors made the difficult decision to put Nora in the ICU and intubate her, to make sure she was still breathing properly. Ceyda stayed at the Alberta Children's Hospital, while Ben went home to quarantine with their 20-monthold daughter, Hazel.
As the novel coronavirus is still new, doctors were not able to tell the Forrests much about what they could expect. Doctors at the Alberta Children's Hospital even connected with U.S. doctors who had seen more cases.
“Everything they were saying (was) ` We can't tell you for sure,'” said Ceyda.
The medical team discovered inflammation throughout Nora's body, including in her lungs and around her heart and brain. They also found an artery to her heart was becoming enlarged — something U.S. doctors had also seen in other infants with COVID.
After four days in the ICU, the doctors removed Nora's breathing tube and Ceyda was able to hold her again.
However, Nora was still feeling the effects of COVID and was crying almost non-stop if she wasn't asleep. Ceyda said that was when the nurses stepped up to help.
“There was this one nurse that took my baby and bounced her while I went and got 10-minutes sleep,” said Ceyda. “It's amazing how they take care of you. They didn't have to do that.”
Ben said he and Hazel had relatively mild symptoms, with his daughter getting over the worst of it in about three days. Neighbours and friends brought them readymade meals, and as soon as his quarantine was over, he was able to go back to the hospital to help Ceyda with Nora.
“We were told how lucky we are in Calgary to have such a stateof-the-art facility at the Alberta Children's Hospital, and we really saw that first-hand,” said Ben. “The team of doctors Ceyda was talking about, they went above and beyond for Nora.”
Now that the four are back home, Hazel is taking a great interest in her new little sister.
“Hazel is constantly around Nora, trying to kiss her, feed her,” said Ceyda. “It makes us think she's trying to make up for the time she missed.”