Bringing home a new baby is stressful, but for Giselle and Grant, the experience of bringing Griffin home was terrifying. Griffin was born prematurely and spent his first 93 days in UW Medicine’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The prospect of leaving this expert support system was traumatic.
Northwest Center's newly launched NICU Smooth Way Home team met with Giselle and Grant to plan Griffin's transition. Four days after discharge the team made the first of many regular visits to their home, now a riot of feeding tubes, with no nurse, and no call button.
Griffin lacked motor control and could not eat, so UW Medicine had fitted a nasal gastric feeding tube. Now at home, Griffin showed signs of reflux and was vomiting to the point that became upset when anything came near his mouth. Griffin was switched to a gastrostomy tube into his stomach that worked much better.
As his eating began to stabilize, other developmental delays became apparent – of movement, motor control and speech – which Northwest Center’s therapists treated with great success. Now thriving, Griffin hasn’t used the feeding tube in two months and is progressing wonderfully.
This is another example of Northwest Center’s commitment to the potential of all children regardless of developmental challenges. This partnership offers a single point of contact for everything from lactation support to tube feeding and trauma counseling.
Northwest Center is committed to doing what is right for all children and families – just ask Giselle and Grant. But we need your support to make this critically important program sustainable.
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