by Bob Sparrow
Wednesday, Feb 26,2020
The Borrelli Family pre-Macklin
5:45 a.m. Daughter, Dana Borrelli, 39 months pregnant, checks into Huntington Hospital in Pasadena to be induced
7:35 a.m. Linda and I call Dana to see how she’s doing. She says not much going on, she feels fine, contractions are still far apart
8:30 a.m. We ‘Face Time’ Dana; she’s resting comfortably, still no urgent contractions. We tell her we’ll be coming up to check in on her later this morning
10:45 a.m. Linda and I, along with Addison, Joe & Dana’s two-and-a-half year old daughter, whom we’ve had for the evening, depart Orange on our way to hospital in Pasadena
10:57 a.m. We get a call from Dana’s phone, but it’s not Dana, it’s husband, Joe. He says he’ll call us right back, that there is “Something’s going on”
We’re now in panic mode, not knowing what this ‘something going on’ is
11:05 a.m. Joe calls us back to tell us that 10-12 hospital personnel just rushed in and quickly wheeled Dana into surgery, with one nurse holding in the umbilical cord that was ‘presenting itself’ first. The umbilical cord coming out first is not good – it is a condition called ‘umbilical cord prolapse’ and can cause significant complications during a delivery if the cord is pressed and collapsed by the baby’s head, thus compromising the oxygen supply to the baby. Joe is not allowed into surgery, he tells us, “This is not good”.
We are now past panic mode and are still about 30 minutes away from the hospital. We tell Joe to give us an up-date as soon as he gets one. He nervously agrees
Macklin Carmine Borrelli
11:37 a.m. Joe calls to tell us that Macklin is here; born at 11:11 a.m. and that both he and Dana are fine, that an emergency C-section was performed. We were told later that because of the speed with which the surgery had to be done, that Dana lost about 2 liters of blood. As a point of reference, an average adult has a total of about 5 liters total in their body, although pregnant women can have around 7.5 liters. Still a lot of blood loss made Mama Dana look a bit pale.
11:45 a.m. Linda, Addison and I arrive at the hospital and wait in the waiting room about 30 more minutes before Joe comes to get us to see Dana and Macklin. Dana, always the warrior, says, with a smile, that all is good, and Macklin, while smaller than anticipated at 6 lbs 7 oz, is healthy.
Linda and I give a big collective sigh of relief that mother and baby are healthy and happy. The birth of a child, I have always believed, is one of the most special miracles ever, even though it sometimes come with a little too much drama.
A special thank you to the amazing staff at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, who sprung into action immediately to save the day.
Whew!!!! All’s well that ends well!