Wesson Gill’s story is one of enduring love, solemn sadness and profound hope.
It also is one buoyed by the dedication of CHRISTUS Spohn Health System to make a difference in caring for the Coastal Bend’s most fragile of patients.
Sixteen weeks into her pregnancy, Logan Gill and her husband, Robert, discovered during a sonogram she was carrying twins. The flickering images also revealed that Wyatt, Wesson’s brother, wouldn’t survive the birth.
The first-time parents and a devoted medical team focused on their faith in each other and their determination to keep Wesson healthy. Delivered at 25 weeks and three days at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-South, Wesson faced extraordinary challenges in the weeks after his birth, spending months in the facility’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Wesson, who weighed less than a pound and a half and suffered from chronic lung disease, underwent heart surgery at 2 weeks of age.
Almost 3,000 babies are delivered annually at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-South. The facility’s NICU also serves as the South Texas resource for frail newborns delivered each year at CHRISTUS Spohn’s rural community hospitals. Sick and premature newborns can be transferred here by our transport team from any community hospital at a moment’s notice, providing the critical care necessary for the tiniest of those whom we are called to serve.
With his parents spending every waking moment by his side, Wesson’s condition gently improved in the weeks that followed, enough that Logan and Robert were faced with another difficult question: Who got the pleasure of holding their son more and sharing that priceless interaction?
“Robert was able to feed him and bond with him a lot, but Mom usually won out,” Logan says. “What we appreciated most is how the doctors and nurses explained everything to us throughout the process and they let us stay with our son as long as we needed.”
Wesson, one of the more than 500 newborns who receive care annually in the NICU at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital-South, is now a rambunctious 2-year-old. He recently received more big news as Logan and Robert welcomed another member to their family. Wesson is now his sister’s champion, doting on 6-month-old Wynnlan at every opportunity, his mother says.
We are grateful for the support we received from everyone at the hospital,” Logan says. “Our family couldn’t have asked for better care.”
As we give thanks for our miraculous team of physicians, nurses and specialists, including those who helped to give Wesson and his family the gift of a bright and healthy future, we hope you’ll consider pledging your financial support to our mission of extending the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.
Your generous financial support toward Mother-Baby Services will help CHRISTUS Spohn:
- Construct a modernized NICU that will consolidate two separate, smaller spaces into one larger unit, providing the highest quality of care for fragile newborns.
- Build a private consultation room where parents can meet with physicians and caregivers to discuss the continuing care of their children.
- House and maintain the highly specialized life-saving equipment essential for transporting frail children to our hospital to receive advanced care.
The Mother-Baby and Women’s Services Project Committee is honoring the late Laura Schultz McComb (1980-2015) – who served on the committee and was a champion of the project – and the late Will Charba (2009-2015) – who himself was born at CHRISTUS Spohn-South – in addition to their dear family members who were taken from us far too early in the Wimberley floods. Memorials for the families have been started and gifts honoring their memories are welcomed by the CHRISTUS Spohn Foundation in support of the project.
Thank you for investing in the future of healthy children across the Coastal Bend through your generous financial support. Your kindness will help CHRISTUS Spohn provide the best in quality health care for our next 110 years.
Posted on November 11, 2015