printable versionTiny stature + big heart + Packard Children's experts = an astounding birth
BY KRISTA CONGER
Eloysa Vasquez, with husband Roy and son Timothy, was determined to have a baby despite her rare illness.
Newborn Timothy Vasquez doesn't know it yet, but he has a mom to be reckoned with—even though he'll likely tower over her when he's in grade school. Eloysa Vasquez weighs only about 37 pounds and is less than 3 feet tall, but she's full of determination. She overcame incredible odds to give birth to Timothy on Jan. 24 at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
"Words cannot explain how it feels to finally have this baby," said Vasquez. "When I held him for the first time I just couldn't believe it." Her doctors concur that her delivery was unusual.
"Out of 4 million childbirths each year in the United States, we believe there are only a handful of successful pregnancies of this type," said obstetrician James Smith, MD. "Eloysa's commitment was obvious and prominent, despite the fact that some women gain more than her entire body weight during pregnancy."
Vasquez gained about 20 lbs over her 32-week pregnancy. The baby weighed 3 lbs. 11 oz. when he was delivered eight weeks early by Cesarean section. He did not inherit his mother's condition.
Vasquez has a rare bone disorder, called osteogenesis imperfecta type 3, that affects about one in every 70,000 people in this country. People with the condition have extremely fragile and often very short bones. Repeated fractures can cause severe deformities; scoliosis and abnormal bone growth in the spine can cause breathing and cardiac difficulties. Vasquez has been confined to a wheelchair since she was 10 years old.
The 38-year-old Vasquez and her husband Roy, who is 5-feet, 8-inches tall, were referred to the children's hospital about halfway through her pregnancy. Her two previous pregnancies had ended in miscarriages, and some doctors had advised them to give up their dream to have a baby. But they were resolute in their determination.
A cadre of specialists at Packard Children's—obstetricians, cardiologists, pulmonologists, orthopedic specialists and anethesiologists—assisted in Vasquez's care over the next three months and worked together to help her complete her pregnancy successfully.
"The issues were highly unusual," said Smith, clincal associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology. "Eloysa has an adult metabolism moving through a child-sized body. We had to watch nutritional status carefully; her child-size stomach could only hold so much, but both her delicate bones and the growing fetus required a high intake of protein and calcium."
In the end, sheer physics would be responsible for the timing of Timothy's birth. "We knew that at some point that a pre-term delivery would be likely," said Smith, "depending on how her body handled her expanding uterus."
Vasquez and her husband moved to the Stanford area a couple of weeks before the birth while doctors planned how best to place her on the delivery table, administer the anesthetic and care for her after birth. When the increasing pressure in her abdomen began to cause an increased heart rate and difficulty breathing, Vasquez and her physicians knew the time had come. "We had made it as far as safely possible," said Smith, who had one previous experience delivering a woman with this condition.
Although the delivery went off without a hitch, Vasquez needed a blood transfusion since the normal bleeding that occurs during a Cesarean accounted for about half her circulating blood volume.
Timothy, though premature, is doing well. His parents hope to transfer him to a hospital closer to home as soon as he is strong enough. They're also looking forward, like all parents, to showing off their son to family, friends and even strangers. Vasquez, long accustomed to people staring, believes people will focus less attention on her disability now. "I think they'll just want to take a look at my beautiful new boy," she said.