– parents high in praise of GPHC doctors

WITH all the negative press the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) gets, Jasmin Harris-Smith feels compelled to share her success story with the hospital and how she owes the many staffers there much gratitude for saving her son’s life.
Jasmin believes her bouncing baby boy, Jedidiah Mattaèo Smith, would not have survived to see his first birthday had it not been for a hardworking team of health- care providers at the GPHC.

Jasmin’s son Jedidiah Smith, was just nine days shy of being one-month-old when he was diagnosed with neonatal sepsis; this is a type of neonatal infection caused by the presence of bacterial blood stream infection (BSI), caused by pneumonia in the lung. He also had tachycardia, a condition whereby the heart beats at a rate significantly faster than normal.
The baby was initially taken to a private city hospital, but he needed treatment in a Neonatal, Intensive Care Unit (NICU) which the private hospital did not have; he was therefore transferred to the GPHC.
As she remembers it, it was a terrifying day for her on January 10, 2019, when she woke up and her baby did not.

“I woke up to an almost lifeless child. He looked pale. When I lifted his hand it drop like dead weight; his breathing was faint. We couldn’t make it to GPHC, so we had to stop at another hospital. On the way there, his eyes were shutting down, like life was literally leaving his body,” Harris recalled of the moment.

At the GPHC, the doctors gave him a 50/50 chance of survival; by the next day, it was worst. Jasmin was on the verge of losing her first and only child.
“On January 11, I went to see him and I heard the nurse say heart rate decreasing. I thought that was good as it was really high, then all I heard was that flat-line sound, and a bunch of people rushing into his room. In that moment so many thoughts rushed through my mind,” she recalled.

After much work by a team of GPHC doctors, little Jedidiah rose above the challenge and on December 19 he celebrated his first birthday.

VERY THANKFUL
Jasmin credits his recovery to God and Dr Yolanda Haynes.
“The doctors were able to get back a heartbeat but he had to be intubated. From that day I prayed that every time I go back to the hospital I would receive good news and I did. He was out of the hospital in nine days, fewer days that he would have normally have to be in there with the diagnosis,” she said.

Jedidiah’s stint at the hospital was not the first time Jasmin had run into service at the public health institution. She had originally given birth to Jedidiah, who was born prematurely at another private city hospital. However, that hospital did not have a NICU and the doctor had advised that the infant be transferred to the GPHC.
When Jedidiah turned one-year-old earlier this month, Jasmin and her husband Brian returned to the hospital’s NICU to show the doctors and other staff of the department their appreciation.

She said she could not imagine her life without her boy, whom she describes as a baby who is very easy to get along with.

“He is a blessing. I’m so happy to have him in our lives and I don’t know what we would’ve done without him. He’s just a calm and cool child, he doesn’t really be fussy, fussy; he only cries if he’s hungry, sleepy or needs a change. That’s the only time, but he loves to eat,” she shares as she laughs.

“He likes to observe people when he meets them first time. But with close family he laughs, talks and claps. He’s very intelligent; if you tell him clap or smile for mommy, he does it.”