Baby survives extremely premature birth with P.E.I. hospital's help

When Sutton Ivy McCabe was born, she was so small that even standard premature baby clothes wouldn't fit her.

Now, after spending weeks in the IWK Health Centre in Halifax and then the newly refitted neonatal intensive care unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, Sutton is finally home.

Her parents, Kennedie Ogden and Jesse McCabe, say she's growing stronger every day.

"She's the love of my life and Kennedie's life. She's just our everything," said Jesse McCabe, Sutton's father.

"She's overcome so much already. It's honestly hard to believe how much she's been through, and how she shows us just how much fight she has inside of her."

Sutton is all smiles while taking a car trip. (Submitted by the McCabe-Ogden family)

'An unknown situation'

He says it all started last November. Kennedie was pregnant with Sutton and Jesse was working a night shift when he got a call.

"Kennedie wasn't feeling the greatest, so I packed up and I went home. We went over to the hospital, they did some checkups. Everything was fine," Jesse said.

About a week later, things took a turn for the worse.

"She had another appointment where they noted that there was some medical complications going on," said Jesse.

He describes what happened next as a blur, with his wife needing to be airlifted to the IWK.

"I drove over that evening myself, and it was just … an unknown situation. We had no idea what to expect," said Jesse.

'A whopping 1 pound, 15 ounces'

Doctors told the parents they were going to try to keep Sutton in the womb as long as they could, given that Kennedie's due date was Feb. 2. In the end, the tiny girl entered the world on Nov. 21.

"Flash-forward about a week after we were there, Sutton was born at a whopping one pound, 15 ounces," Jesse said.

According to the World Health Organization, the average birth weight of a full-term newborn is seven pounds six ounces.

Sutton shortly after being born, next to her first teddy bear. (Submitted by the McCabe-Ogden family)

McCabe and Ogden got Sutton a teddy bear shortly after she was born, and she was about the same size as the bear. They like to show people a photo of her with the bear to show how much Sutton's grown.

"From moment one, she was just unbelievable," McCabe said. "She was breathing on her own; she didn't use very much oxygen when she was born."

Despite that, she was still in danger.

"It was a very traumatic situation. From double-digit people in the room, to Kennedie being cared for and Sutton being rushed off to the neonatal unit. Me going with the baby and leaving Kennedie behind, but not knowing where to go or which direction to go in," said Jesse.

He says relatives made numerous trips to support them during Sutton's neonatal unit stay.

'It was just incredible to be back home'

Finally, when Sutton reached the weight threshold of 1,000 grams in December, she was able to make the transfer to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown.

"It was just incredible to be back home… even though Sutton was still going to have an extended stay at that NICU unit," said Jesse.

With Sutton in the care of staff at that unit, he said her parents felt safe spending the night at home: "It was like they were part of the family."

Sutton on May 16, reaching for the teddy bear that used to be the same size as her tiny body. (Laura Meader/CBC)

The newly refitted neonatal intensive care unit was a great resource for them, Jesse said.

"Halifax is incredible, but it does get expensive being over there, and that adds up. And if it wasn't for the equipment the QEH had, and the doctors and nurses and training and everything that we have here on the Island, babies like Sutton … wouldn't be able to come back home to the Island and have the support," Kennedie said.

'The tiniest of everything'

Dr. Beth Ellen Brown, a neonatologist at the QEH, says the new equipment lets them take care of some of the smallest babies born on P.E.I.

"We have much of the same equipment that is at the IWK, and we're so grateful for that. We wouldn't be able to keep families here, and keep our smaller, sicker babies on the Island if it wasn't for that support," she said.

Sutton on a visit back to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital NICU with her parents and Dr. Beth Ellen Brown. (Laura Meader/CBC)

In 2019, Brown helped establish the Provincial Neonatology Service, so she is thoroughly aware the equipment needed for a neonatal unit isn't cheap. They need to be able to recreate the conditions offered by the uterus in the outside world, using breathing machines, feeding machines and specialized positioning devices.

Brown said Sutton used all of that equipment, funded completely by donations, during her time at the QEH.

"Babies inside the womb are used to meeting resistance every time they move, and that helps their muscles and their bones develop properly, so we need to try to create that on the inside of the incubator," said Brown.

"[We need] the tiniest of everything. We need the tiniest breathing tubes, the tiniest feeding tubes, the tiniest IVs, the tiniest diapers."

'Nothing's holding her back'

Premature babies are vulnerable to various health problems, and Kennedie said she and Jesse were kept informed about all of them.

"She was born 12 weeks early. They obviously come in and tell us all the possibilities of her future health… high risk of deafness, blindness, high risk of cerebral palsy.

"Then just obvious stuff like the muscle tone, her lung development,… being able to eat food and stuff properly because she was on a feeding tube for so long.… She had to be taught how to eat."

Despite that list of possible health complications, her mom said Sutton's health is relatively good.

She does have congenital hyperthyroidism, so takes a medication that gets mixed in with her milk, and she's being regularly monitored by cardiologists for pulmonary stenosis, the narrowing of a valve in her heart.

"I tell her every single day how brave she is for everything that she's gone through," said Kennedie. "There's people who wouldn't be able to fight like she did."