MACON, Ga. — Amelia Spencer is small, but has a load of strength.
She was treated at the Beverly Knight Olson Children’s Hospital a few months ago with a cutting-edge procedure. Now, the hospital has four brand new operating rooms.
The surgeons are doing amazing things and because of their willingness to try something new, one family is back home in Warner Robins today.
“We’re going to miss her so much because she has been such a joy to take care of,” said RN Lea Moorman, “It’s good, but it’s sad.”
Baby Amelia Spencer captured the hearts of the staff in the neo-natal intensive care unit.
After spending the first six months of life in room #452, she gets to go home.
“She’s breaking out of jail today, so we thought the stripes were fitting,” said her father, Austin Spencer.
“We knew five to six months when I was pregnant, she was born with a rare birth defect where she has esophageal atresia where her stomach doesn’t connect to her esophagus,” said her mother, Maria.
As first-time parents, Maria and Austin said they knew that had a big problem to deal with.
“I don't think it was scary, just stressful…the not knowing at first, but then we got to know the doctors and the NNICU staff and everything like that and we became very comfortable,” said Austin.
Doctors had an idea it was something that has only happened a couple dozen times across America.
“They insert the magnets and after two weeks they pulled them out and everything grew back together,” said Maria.
“You can see here on Sept. 27; one magnet was placed from above and one magnet was placed from below and at this time we had a gap of 3.5-4 cm. As we move to the next day, you could immediately see how these two gaps disappeared,” said Dr. Mitch Rodriguez.
Rodriguez helped take care of Amelia and he says the hardest part was getting her treatment approved. She was the first child in Georgia to undergo the procedure.
“The surgery… the use of this device… it’s a humanitarian exemption by the FDA. It’s only been used in the nation 26 times,” said Rodriguez.
“What I thought about the technology is it's so simple. You wonder why it hasn't been thought of before, so it's truly awesome just using magnets to put it together,” said Austin.
Amelia isn’t completely done at the hospital, she will still have to come back for outpatient procedures to strengthen her esophagus. She hasn’t had food in her mouth for the first six months of her life.
The Spencers can handle all those details and cords. They’re just thankful to take their baby girl home.
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