Story
Name
Martin Gerken
Injury/Illness
Heart Defect
Katie went in on Tuesday, December 31st for her routine 30 week checkup. During her appointment her doctor listened to martin's heartbeat and quickly became worried that he kept picking up Katie's heartbeat and couldn't find the baby's. Katie was taken into another room and go hooked up to a machine which was showing Martin's heart rate really low (70s/80s). Katie's doctor decided at the time to send her across the street to be monitored closely as Martin's heart rate was very concerning. Katie walked out of her OB apt and called her mom at about 9:00am to let her know she was going to the hospital (she couldn't get a hold of her husband). Katie got to the hospital, where they got her on the monitor, and within minutes the doctor came in and said they're taking the baby out right away. Everything moved so quickly from there prepping Katie for surgery. Katie was frantically trying to get a hold of someone to let them know she was going into emergency surgery. She called her mom at 9:05am to let herr know whey were taking him out and to try and get a hold of her husband. Katie was quickly put out for surgery and by 9:15am Martin "Marty" Gerken was born via Emergency C Section at 30 weeks weighing 4lbs 5.84oz.
Marty was admitted to Fairview Southdale Hospital for evaluation, treatment and management for prematurity, respiratory failure requiring ventilation, frequent PVC's, and concerns for Ebstein's anomaly. He was transferred to UMMCH for concerns for frequent PVC's and Ebsteins anomaly on 1/2/2020-1/14/2020. We was readmitted to the NICU at Southdale for continued management of prematurity and cardiac concerns. After 80 days in the NICU Martin was finally able to come home at 41w 1d weighing 9lbs 4.04oz.
Because of Marty's extended stay in the NICU Katie had to make the difficult decision to leave her place of employment because of the extra care Marty will need at home and because of this we've lost a large portion of our monthly income.