The day Serenity was born was literally the scariest day of my life. At 3am I delivered my beautiful girl into the world. But her color wasn’t right. The nurses took her to the warmer to help her pink up. Something wasn’t right. She wasn’t crying. She calmly laid there and allowed the nurses to work. When they listened to her lungs the sound wasn’t right. They rushed her to the NICU. We were all scared for our little girl.The nurses in the NICU explained to me that Serenity has CDH- congenital diaphragmatic hernia. A small hole developed in her diaphragm during my pregnancy that allowed her intestines and a portion of her stomach up next to her left lung. Once in my hospital room I was told she will be going to Children’s Hospital for surgery. Once I arrived the nurses and doctors began to explain everything. They told me we would wait a few days to make sure she is stable enough for surgery. For the first 5 days we all prayed that our little girl would be okay and pull through and fight. Which she did. The day of her surgery they found that she was stable enough to have a less invasive surgery done. They were able to use 2 tiny incisions and very small instruments to do her repair. As we were told not many CDH babies are stable enough for it. After we were told that she was one lucky girl. Her intestines migrated very late; the hernia is usually detected at about 12-20 weeks during pregnancy for my baby it was within the last few weeks of gestation. This doesn’t happen very often so her lungs were able to mostly develop; which sadly is not the case for all CDH babies. Two days after her surgery she was finally taken off the ventilator that she had been on since arriving at the hospital. But her breathing was an issue so she was placed back on the ventilator. She gave them all the signs that she was ready, but she did still need some help from the vent. The nurses waited for a few more days. Then the doctors gave the okay to take her back off. She did fantastic that time. Within a few days she was off all breathing assistance and was given a feeding tube. She was finally getting the milk I had pumped for her. Once she was cleared for feeding by mouth we knew it was just a matter of time and we could take our girl home. She didn’t like the hospital bottles. We tried her on the ones she would use at home. She started doing extremely well with feeds. Once she took all her feeds and gained weight we were finally able to go home. 3 1/2 weeks later, we finally went home. Compared to other CDH kids she was lucky. Not many have her outcome. She is our little fighter.

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• Name: Serenity D.Serenity Douglas
• Condition(s): Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia
• Age at Treatment: 3 hours old
• Age Today: 01/14/20168 Years

The day Serenity was born was literally the scariest day of my life. At 3am I delivered my beautiful girl into the world. But her color wasn’t right. The nurses took her to the warmer to help her pink up. Something wasn’t right. She wasn’t crying. She calmly laid there and allowed the nurses to work. When they listened to her lungs the sound wasn’t right. They rushed her to the NICU. We were all scared for our little girl.The nurses in the NICU explained to me that Serenity has CDH- congenital diaphragmatic hernia. A small hole developed in her diaphragm during my pregnancy that allowed her intestines and a portion of her stomach up next to her left lung. Once in my hospital room I was told she will be going to Children’s Hospital for surgery. Once I arrived the nurses and doctors began to explain everything. They told me we would wait a few days to make sure she is stable enough for surgery. For the first 5 days we all prayed that our little girl would be okay and pull through and fight. Which she did. The day of her surgery they found that she was stable enough to have a less invasive surgery done. They were able to use 2 tiny incisions and very small instruments to do her repair. As we were told not many CDH babies are stable enough for it. After we were told that she was one lucky girl. Her intestines migrated very late; the hernia is usually detected at about 12-20 weeks during pregnancy for my baby it was within the last few weeks of gestation. This doesn’t happen very often so her lungs were able to mostly develop; which sadly is not the case for all CDH babies. Two days after her surgery she was finally taken off the ventilator that she had been on since arriving at the hospital. But her breathing was an issue so she was placed back on the ventilator. She gave them all the signs that she was ready, but she did still need some help from the vent. The nurses waited for a few more days. Then the doctors gave the okay to take her back off. She did fantastic that time. Within a few days she was off all breathing assistance and was given a feeding tube. She was finally getting the milk I had pumped for her. Once she was cleared for feeding by mouth we knew it was just a matter of time and we could take our girl home. She didn’t like the hospital bottles. We tried her on the ones she would use at home. She started doing extremely well with feeds. Once she took all her feeds and gained weight we were finally able to go home. 3 1/2 weeks later, we finally went home. Compared to other CDH kids she was lucky. Not many have her outcome. She is our little fighter.