Eight-month-old Penelope is a true miracle baby

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Chelsea Belleau held her eight-month-old daughter Penelope this Christmas, knowing that doctors had told her more than a year ago that her unborn child had a slim chance of survival.

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The Richmond mom was so grateful to be able to spend the holidays with Penelope that she called BC Children’s Hospital on Wednesday and thanked them for saving her daughter’s life.

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“It turns out the staff here called her the ‘little miracle’ baby,” Jessica Holmes, a hospital spokeswoman, told Postmedia News.

Not only did Penelope overcome a life-threatening birth defect, she was born from a single viable embryo that Belleau produced following in vitro fertilization.

“If you see her now, you’ll never know what she went through,” said her mother, who works as a kindergarten teacher. “She’s just a happy, really chilled baby.”

Belleau and her husband, Benjamin Nickel, had been trying to conceive and start a family for six years prior to the pregnancy.

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“When I found out we were pregnant, we were overjoyed. We’re like, ‘This is a miracle,'” Belleau said.

The 38-year-old had no idea that the real miracle was yet to come.

A routine ultrasound at 19 weeks discovered Penelope had a hole in her diaphragm. Her mother was referred to BC Children’s, the only hospital in the province that treats the rare congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).

“Based on the size of her lungs as a fetus, she had less than a 25 percent chance of survival,” said Dr. Erik Skarsgard, chief of surgery and doctor to Penelope at the hospital.

Skarsgard helped establish a national registry of CDH patient outcomes to inform treatment guidelines used in hospitals across Canada.

In Penelope’s case, the specialist recommended her specialized fetoscopic endoluminal tracheal occlusion therapy (FETO) at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

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“They insert a tiny, two to three millimeter balloon into the fetus’ windpipe, which causes the lungs to grow faster than usual,” Skarsgard said.

“It helps offset the fact that by the time these babies are born, they are so underdeveloped that they have a chance.”

However, FETO surgery came with risks, including the risk of preterm birth, which can reduce a newborn’s chances of survival.

Belleau underwent the procedure when Penelope was a 29-week fetus.

“We felt it was important that we take the chance to know that we did everything we could for them,” Belleau said.

After four weeks, the balloon was surgically deflated.

Eight weeks later, Penelope was born at BC Woman’s Hospital.

“When she was first born, she stopped breathing and turned blue,” Belleau said, fighting back tears.

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However, a specialist neonatal team of doctors and nurses was ready to treat her and intervened immediately with a ventilator small enough to fit in her lungs.

At four days old, Penelope underwent a four-hour operation at BC Children’s Hospital to repair the hernia and separate her intestines from her chest cavity, where her lungs were located. From there she spent 126 days in the neonatal intensive care unit.

She was able to go home at the end of August.

Although Penelope is still tube-fed and uses respiratory support at night, she is expected to outgrow her use and live a full and healthy life.

“During the day she just plays and enjoys being a baby. She loves bright lights and sounds. I sing to them a lot,” Belleau said.

“I think about it all the time. How will she be when she’s two? how about three I can’t wait to see her continue to thrive.”

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