On a recent spring afternoon, Sarah Finney sits outside of her Crossett, Arkansas, home as she discusses her youngest son, Weston. The three-year-old’s naptime is one of the few pockets of time during the day when Finney can speak at length about his life’s journey so far. However, Finney is grateful for the busy schedule.
“There was very little hope that he would survive his first week,” Finney said. “Every time he made it through the night, he had a little bit of a better chance. Then, we felt that if he could make it past the first week, he may make it a little longer. He was so critical that I wasn’t even able to hold him until he was six weeks old.”
An Unexpected Turn at 24 Weeks
Finney’s pregnancy with Weston was going smoothly until she was at the 24-week mark. Finney, who had given birth to five other children – including twins who did not survive after being born at 17 weeks – felt something was amiss. Doctors at her small local hospital said she needed to go elsewhere once she was in labor. For Finney, the choice to make the hourlong trip to St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe was an easy one.
“I’m from Monroe, so I consider it my hometown hospital, and our two oldest living children were born at St. Francis,” Finney said. “This was also during a Covid peak, so hospitals were full, and St. Francis was the only place that could take both of us.”
Weston was born on October 1, 2021, and was highly critical, due to being born extremely prematurely and also because Finney’s placenta ruptured during her trip to the hospital, meaning Weston went several minutes without necessary nourishment and support.
Critical First Days in the Level III NICU
Immediately after his birth at St. Francis, Weston was placed in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the only Level III NICU in the region. It would mark the first day of a 102-day stay during which Weston and his family experienced many ups and downs. Yet, the doctors and nurses at St. Francis were there with expertise, compassion and support through it all.
“They always took time to explain to us what was happening. They sat with us when we cried and celebrated with us when he had a good day,” Finney said. “There were days we got a lot of time to talk with the staff and connect with them on a personal level. It helped me to know that they are parents just like us. I was in awe watching them take care of the babies – not just Weston, but the other babies who were there. You see how much love they have for them. They fight for the babies so hard because they want them to thrive.”
Small Wins and Big Milestones
Finney said she believes that care is one of the main reasons for Weston’s turnaround. That started when he was about six or seven weeks old, when doctors were able to begin reducing his medication and he better tolerated routine activities like feedings and diaper changes.
“We finally started to feel that he was leveling out. We weren’t getting quite so much bad news,” she said. “When he was at about 30 or 31 weeks gestationally, we started to feel like we were going to make it through.”
The Power of Compassionate Care
Today, Weston has reached some milestones that seemed impossible in his earliest months. He knows the alphabet and can recognize letters and sounds. He can count to 40 and backwards from 20. He continues to overcome challenges, such as social skills and following multi-step directions, and Finney said he will be tested for autism in the future. But, any of those obstacles pale in comparison to what might have been.
“There were so many times where we stood by his bed with his doctors and talked about what his future could look like,” Finney said. “The nurses were always great about explaining those things to me in ‘mom terms.’ He’s ahead in some ways and behind in others, but they had told us to expect a lot of that with him being so premature and having so much medication when he was very little. Overall, he is really happy and we’re happy with all of the progress he continues to make.”
Finney remains thankful to the team at St. Francis, and has referred many other parents to them, including personal friends and people she has met through social media as she continues to share Weston’s story.
“The people at St. Francis care so much on a personal level,” she said. “Everybody knew our names, from the doctors and nursing staff to the housekeepers and security guards. We never felt like a number or that you might fall through the cracks. I have encouraged several other moms to choose a doctor with privileges at St. Francis because it truly is a family.”
We hope your family never needs a NICU, but it’s good to know what’s available — just in case. Across our health system we offer access to the highest quality family-centered care:
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Northeast Louisiana: the region’s only Level III NICU at St. Francis Medical Center
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Greater Baton Rouge and Northshore: Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital’s Newton & Betsy Thomas Family Center for Newborn & Infant Intensive Care
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Acadiana: Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s & Children’s Hospital’s Level III Surgical NICU
