Twenty weeks into their pregnancy, Lori and Brian were shocked when an ultrasound revealed something was wrong. Doctors diagnosed their unborn baby with fetal complications, which would require a host of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) specialists, doctors and nurses to ensure a safe and healthy delivery. With this knowledge, Lori and Brian decided to deliver their son at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

At 35 weeks pregnant, Lori learned that Wyatt was no longer growing inside of her, and she needed a cesarean section.

Brian remembers, “It was a shock, but as crazy of a time as it was, the demeanor of everyone in was very calming.” He continues, “They made it feel like it was routine even though there was nothing routine about it at all.”

When Wyatt was born, Lori did not hear him cry for several minutes and feared he was not breathing. Finally, he began to scream. Lori says, “Hearing Wyatt scream was one of the happiest sounds of my life.”

Though the birth was successful, Lori wasn’t able see her baby for several hours. She also couldn’t breastfeed or care for him as she’d hoped. Nurses managed cords and tubes to allow her to hold him, but only for a short time because he needed to be back in the incubator.

Lori was discharged from the hospital after five days — but without baby Wyatt. His oxygen levels were low when he was out of the incubator. He also had feeding issues and drops in his heart rate.

Through it all, the nursing team assured the family that he would be safest where they could intervene with care. Finally, after 21 days, Wyatt was discharged from the hospital.

The first four months after his discharge involved a slew of appointments. At 6 months old, he was diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia, the first of many diagnoses over the years that would keep the family coming back to the Children’s Center. Ultimately, Wyatt celebrated his first Christmas and first birthday in the NICU.

Wyatt has endured several issues since then, including a urinary tract infection, multiple instances of not breathing or eating on his own, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (a severe form of epilepsy), bilateral hearing loss, bilateral blindness, chronic lung disease, sleep apnea, swelling of the kidneys (hydronephrosis) and a small cardiac defect. He is also currently nonambulatory and requires a feeding tube.

Due to so many diagnoses for Wyatt, the family continues to see doctors in various departments, but the one team that ties it all together is the Pediatric Palliative Care team. “We see a lot of specialists and subspecialists here, the one unifying team is the Pediatric Palliative Care team,” explains Lori. “They’re a group of people trained to think of … Wyatt as a whole 8-year-old boy and how interventions affect him and our family as well.” She continues, “If we didn’t have the Pediatric Palliative Care team as part of Team Wyatt, I’m not sure we would be able to care for Wyatt the way we do. They give us strength when we don’t have it.”

Today, 8-year-old Wyatt always has a smile on his face and is glad to have people around him. His parents believe that Wyatt is a living, breathing miracle. “We don’t know what’s left in his story,” says Lori, “but we do know that it’s going to be big.”