Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalFrom left, Dr. Lynn Drab, Cathy and Dana Moore listen as Dr. C.R. Patel, director of maternal-fetal cardiology at Children's Hospital explains a defect found in their unborn baby. In their baby's early weeks in the womb everything formed perfectly - with one seemingly small exception. The muscles and tissues that join to form his diaphragm didn't fit together. The result was a tiny hole known as a diaphragmatic hernia. The babies chance for surviving this birth defect is 50 percent. The Fetal Treatment Center of Northeast Ohio was created to offer the best medical care before and after birth to support the entire family. Dr Patel discovered a small hole in the baby's heart this day after performing an echocardiogram. It will be one more hurdle to clear if this baby is to survive.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy and Dana talk with Dr. Harriet Feick, left, and Donna Patno while taking a tour of the neonatal intensive care unit at Children's Hospital. Feick is the neonatologist who will oversee their baby's care at Children's and Patno is the clinical case manager of the fetal treatment center.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy Moore watches a monitor as Dr C. R. Patel performs an echocardiogram on her baby's heart May 5 to monitor a defect found in earlier testing.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy puts the clamps on Dana's teasing during a child birthing class at Akron General Hospital May 5.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy steps on the scale for what would be her final check up prior to delivering her baby four days later.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalDr. Justin Lavin who heads the maternal fetal medicine program at Akron General and Summa hospitals examines Cathy on June 18. Lavin says he will induce labor in five days if she does not deliver before then.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalAkron General labor and delivery nurse Amy McGuire takes the Moores' newborn son to a "hot room" where a team of specialists is standing by to stabilize him so he can be transported to Children's Hospital.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalDana Moore kisses his wife Cathy moments after she delivered their son at Akron General Hospital on June 22.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalAkron Children's Hospital director of neonatology Dr Anand Kantak examines an chest x-ray of Cathy and Dana Moore's baby moments after birth. The baby's left lung is not near as developed as doctors had hoped for.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalForty-five minutes after delivery Cathy and Dana Moore embrace after being told that their son may need to be placed on a heart lung bypass machine. Their son's lungs were not nearly as developed as doctors had hoped for and now the most extreme of life saving measures may need to be taken.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalNeonatologists, Dr. Jennifer Grow, left, and Dr. Jeffrey Butler discuss options in the treatment of Cathy and Dana Moore's newborn son in the neonatal intensive care unit at Akron Children's Hospital shortly after his arrival.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalDana Moore watches a medical personel stabilize his newborn son at Children's Hospital after leaving his wife at Akron General Hospital.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalDana Moore wipes a tear as Dr. Jeffrey Butler explains that his newborn son needs put on ECMO, a heart lung bypass machine. Ann Kelley, R.N. was there as a witness for the consent forms to be signed. Butler tells Dana to bring his wife over from Akron General Hospital where she delivered hours earlier. As they sign the consent forms Cathy and Dana decide to name their baby Ethan Carney Moore.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalRespiratory therapist Chris Feich watches as surgeons operate to put Ethan on a heart-lung bypass machine for life support.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalA small pillow with a cross hangs over Ethan's isolet in the neonatal intensive care unit at Akron Children's Hospital.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalThough Ethan is sedated and hooked to machines, that doesn't stop Dana from reading a Dr. Suess book to him the day after he was born.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalDr C. R. Patel briefs Dana and Cathy on Ethan's condition after performing an echocardiogram to monitor a minor heart defect which may have an effect on his undeveloped lungs.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalStilled by drugs to keep him sedated and ease his pain Ethan lies in his isolet the day after his birth. Tubes jutting out of his neck and filled with his blood are lifelines, connecting him to the complex ECMO machine that is keeping him alive.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalDana and Cathy arrive at the hospital to visit with Ethan before he is to be taken off the ECMO machine, only to find out Ethan may not be strong enough for that step. Cathy strokes Ethan and tells him, "I'm sorry there going to keep you on this a little bit longer."
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalPerfusionist Melanie Schmidt clamps off tubes attaching Ethan to the ECMO machine as respiratory therapist Michelle Gessler and ECMO coordinator JoAnn Lindeman watch closely. Now it's up to Ethan's heart to circulate his blood and up to his lungs to take over breathing with some help from a ventilator. Hours earlier doctors didn't think this step would be possible.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalThe tears over Ethan this time are tears of joy as Cathy, and her sister-in-law Cindy Carney, left, see Ethan after he was disconnected from the heart-lung machine. Cindy Carney will deliver a baby of her own in two weeks. With disconnection from the ECMO machine, one hurdle is cleared. The next big one is fixing the hole in Ethan's diaphragm.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalA towel drapes Ethan's isolet to keep him from being over stimulated while the medical staff talks about the surgery to repair his diaphragmatic hernia which will take place the following day, 18 days after birth.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy is comforted by her mother-in-law Patricia Moore in the early morning hours prior to his surgery to repair his diaphragmatic hernia scheduled for noon. Ethan is still not stable enough to move so the surgical team will come to him and perform the operation in his NICU room.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy and Dana say goodbye to Ethan prior to surgery to repair his diaphragmatic hernia.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalA picture of Dana and Cathy taken on their honeymoon taped above Ethan's isolet seems to keep a watchful eye on him as Dr. John Crow operates on him.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalPediatric surgeon John Crow talks with the family after surgery to repair the Ethan's diaphragm. His organs are now where they should be and his lungs now have room to develop.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalSurrounded by family Cathy and Dana embrace as they see Ethan following the surgery that repaired his diaphragmatic hernia. "I know he has a long way to go, Cathy says, "but I feel about the best I've felt in twenty weeks." "Let yourself be happy," says Dr Jeffrey Butler, smiling. "This was a good day."
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy and Dana talk with Dr. C.R. Patel who briefs them on Ethan's condition the day following surgery that repaired his diaphragmatic hernia. Ethan is getting stronger but, there is a good chance he'll need another operation to insert a feeding tube into his stomach.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalThe day after surgery to repair the baby's diaphragm, Cathy gets to hold her son for only the second time since he was born. It's only for a moment while registered nurse Lori Lewis changes Ethan's bedding.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalJuly 17 seven days after surgery, Ethan is doins so well that a team of nurses and respiratory therapists removes the ventilator so he can breathe with just a little oxygen. Most mothers wait seconds after delivery to hear the reassuring sound of their newborn's first cry. For Cathy, it took 25 excruciating days.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalRespiratory therapist Chris Burnworth, left, Dana and Diane Parrino, R.N. watch the monitors while Cathy keeps her eye on Ethan as he is removed from the ventilator.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy looks in on Ethan through an oxygen-rich tent that will make it easier for him to breathe on his own.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalThe Moore's pose for a family portrait in the NICU at Akron Children's Hospital. It was the first time Cathy was able to hold her son for any length of time. It lasted an hour and a half. Cathy said, "It seemed like ten minutes."
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalOccupational therapist Mindy Catalano, left, shows Dana and Cathy massage techniques to use on Ethan to stimulate development.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalStuffed animals hang over Ethan while a CT scan is done to make sure there was no bleeding in his brain caused by being on the heart-lung machine. This is the first time Ethan has left the NICU unit for treatment elsewhere in the hospital.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy waits with Ethan in a holding area prior to surgery to replace the broviac line in his chest which doctors think is causing an infection.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalA nurse looks at Ethan's scar from his previous surgery as he waits to go in for additional procedures. Surgeons will reopen there and take a portion of Ethan's stomach and wrap it around his esophagus to keep food from back flowing. A tube will then be placed in his stomach so food can be inserted directly.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy holds Ethan at feeding time. Although he gets his nourishment from a feeding tube the time is valuable as mother and baby bond.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalEthan is caressed by Cheryl Laws, a nurse in the intensive care unit who cares for him. Slow steady progress has been made for five weeks since his surgery and Ethan now has been moved to a private room in the neonatal unit at Children's Hospital.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCathy and Dana hear the words they have been longing to hear: Ethan can go home in five days. Carla Deiss, R.N., left, gives the Moores CPR trainning instructions on how to use oxygen and monitors that Ethan will continue to need at home.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalEthan's eyes peer over Dana's shoulder as he comforts him in his room at Akron Children's Hospital.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalCheryl Laws, R.N. plays with Ethan in his crib at Akron Children's Hospital.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalEthan gets fussy as nurses measure him as they prepare to discharge him from Akron Children's Hospital.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon Journal"He needs to go home," nurse Cherly Laws says as she cradles Ethan in her arms on his last morning in the NICU. "It's definitely time."
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalNurse Cheryl Laws and Cathy calm down Ethan after he got fussy after being strapped in his car seat for the ride home.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalLike any other parents the Moores' capture the big moment on video as Dana takes Ethan into their home for the first time.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalSeventy nine days after birth Ethan is safe and sound in his bedroom at home. For the first time Ethan is their baby and their baby alone. No one else tends to his needs or answers his cries. Cathy rarely leaves his side, she sleeps in this bed moved into the nursery to care for him. Alarms will sound sound if he stops breathing or if there's not enough oxygen in his body. Any illness or worsening of his breathing problems can kill him.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalOnly home for short time an alarm sounds on Ethan's oxygen equipment as Cathy and Dana need to put their training to use to get the situation under control. Two weeks later Ethan was taken back to Children's Hospital. Three months and four days after birth, Ethan Carney Moore's life ends.
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalDana's mother Patricia Moore, comforts Dana and Cathy after a graveside funeral service for Ethan at Woodlawn Cemetery. "I'm so thankful he got home," Dana will later day. "I didn't want his entire existence to be sitting paralyzed in a hospital bed. I'm so thankful for those moments at home. That was our miracle."
Second Place, Ohio Understanding Award - Bob DeMay / Akron Beacon JournalA pinwheel marks Ethan's grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in Wadsworth. Every day, an average of 411 babies are born in the United States with a serious birth defect. Each has a different story. Yet, so often, their stories are also the same. Survival is a constant struggle, and every breath, every cry, every smile is a triumph. Every day of life is a miracle.
