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Premature
baby beats the odds
By Elizabeth Harmon
Daily Herald Correspondent
Posted on November 28,
2000
Married in January, expectant parents in February, owners
of a new business in June - Marti and Joel Sackett of Algonquin have had
quite a year.
But nothing could compare with the harrowing night in late
July when their daughter, Adelaide Eliese, came into the world nearly four
months premature, weighing only 1 pound, 3 ounces.
"We found out later that they didn't expect her to
live through the first week," Marti Sackett recalls.
But Adi was determined to prove everyone wrong. Nicknamed
"the fighter" by the nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit
at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, the tiny infant clung to life.
And on Nov. 16, the day before what was to have been Adi's due date, Joel
and Marti were able to take their daughter home for the first time.
"She's such a little miracle, and it's so great that
she went home with very little equipment considering how early she was
born," said neonatal nurse Nancy Lebich, who cared for Adi at
Lutheran General.
"We attribute it to prayers and to both her parents'
stubbornness, which she's obviously inherited," Marti Sackett said.
"The doctor told my husband she was the healthiest 1-pounder he'd
ever seen."
July was busy month for the Sacketts, owners of Studio Fit
weight training center in Lake in the Hills and a second location in
Schaumburg that they had opened the month before.
On top of that, the couple was living with Marti Sackett's
parents in Hampshire, while their new townhouse was being built. Marti
Sackett had been having an uneventful pregnancy, so when she developed
body aches and a low fever in her 23rd week, she wasn't overly concerned.
"I thought I just had a bug and that I'd sleep
through it. The doctor told me to treat it with Tylenol and keep it under
102."
But the fever hung on through the weekend, and on Monday
morning, July 24, Marti woke up with excruciating pain in her abdomen.
Joel rushed her to the nearest emergency room and later that day, she was
transferred to Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington. There, her doctors
determined that her high white blood cell count indicated an infection,
most likely appendicitis.
"They removed my appendix but found that wasn't the
cause. Then opened me up and found a ton of infection," Marti Sackett
said.
The diagnosis was peritonitis, an acute inflammation in
the abdominal cavity. Although the cause was not determined, the Sackett's
more immediate concern was for the baby girl Marti Sackett was carrying.
"They prepared us before the surgery, saying that it
might induce premature contractions, labor and delivery of the baby,"
Joel Sackett said. "Of course, no one wanted that to happen and she
was on medication to prevent it."
But about 20 hours after her surgery, a little before 2
a.m. on July 27, Marti developed more abdominal pains, which she mistook
for gas. Though she was connected to a fetal monitor, surgical bandages
prevented the sensor from getting an accurate reading. She called for a
nurse to help her to the bathroom and moments later, gave birth.
Joel Sackett was asleep in the hallway outside of Marti
Sackett's room.
"The nurse came out and said, 'Mr. Sackett, can you
please come inside?' Right away, I knew it wasn't good."
Joel Sackett was brought down to the nursery to see Adi
before she was transferred to Lutheran General. At 11 inches long, she
could be held in the palm of a hand.
"She looked like a normal baby, just very, very
tiny," he said.
He accompanied his daughter to Park Ridge, beginning a
grueling cycle of daily visits to two hospitals, while juggling
responsibilities at both Studio Fit locations. With help from a childhood
friend John Woodward, who worked in the studio for free, and from the
Sackett's two full-time fitness trainers, Mandy Sosnowski and Donna
Collins, Joel Sackett kept the businesses going.
Daily videos of Adi, and her husband's company each night,
kept Marti going. After her release from the hospital, Marti Sackett began
the daily 45-minute trek to Park Ridge.
"There were a lot of ups and a lot of downs,"
she remembers. "The doctors told us not to look at her daily numbers
but to look at the big picture; was she healthy. She was, so that's what
we focused on."
Support from their family and friends, and the couple's
faith sustained them.
"Marti and I both believe in God, that ultimately
it's his will whether things would go one way or another," Joel
Sackett said.
Adi's weight has climbed from a low of 14 ounces to 5
pounds, 3 ounces, and she is now 171/2 inches long. Developmentally she is
a newborn, rather than a 4-month-old and she still needs oxygen and a
series of medications. But tests so far indicate that she is otherwise
normal. Her parents didn't expect anything less.
"When bad things happen, there's no preparing for
it," said Joel. "We just dealt with it by thinking that Adi was
going to make it, because there was really no other way."
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