Meet Kamerie, who has faced many life-threatening and developmental challenges during her young life.
Anitra and Damarcus Littlejohn were excited to welcome another baby girl to their family. However, excitement quickly turned into concern as Anitra had to be admitted to an adult facility for a high-risk pregnancy due to her baby girl not growing well.
During her three-week stay, Anitra was introduced to a neonatologist from East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH) to discuss what a premature birth could potentially look like. While the conversation was scary, Anitra and her husband were reassured by the honest and transparent ETCH care team.
Later that month, Anitra went in for a routine ultrasound visit only to be immediately rushed into surgery for an emergency C-section and then to watch her newborn baby girl being resuscitated. The team at Children’s Hospital was there and ready to transport Kamerie to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where the smallest and sickest babies receive the around-the-clock care they need. Kamerie was born weighing only 1 pound and 5 ounces. Work began to save her life.
Over the next 384 days, Kamerie remained in the NICU fighting to stay alive. As an extremely small infant born early at 28 gestational weeks, she battled pneumonia, underwent blood transfusions and breathed with the support of a ventilator. After three months in the NICU, Kamerie had only gained one pound.
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital doctors and nurses knew something else was wrong, and they were determined to find an answer for the Littlejohns. After genetic testing, it was found that Kamerie had 18p Deletion Syndrome, a genetic condition that occurs when all or part of the short arm of chromosome 18 is deleted. This extremely rare genetic condition affects only 1 in every 50,000 babies.
Despite this diagnosis providing answers, the Littlejohns still had much work to do. Kamerie still struggled with every breath and needed a tracheostomy to permanently support her breathing. She celebrated her first birthday in the NICU surrounded by her parents, big sister Emerie and care team that had become like family to them.
After spending over a year in the NICU, the Littlejohn family was finally able to bring Kamerie home. Unlike bringing home their first daughter, the family left with a mobile intensive care unit to care for Kamerie but felt prepared and confident in their abilities since they were trained by the ETCH clinicians during their time at the hospital. Today, Kamerie is thriving, and Children’s Hospital has become a second home to them. She sees a variety of specialists across the hospital’s growing system and are grateful to know they have the best possible care for every step of their journey right in their backyard.
Generous donors like you make it possible for our team to provide hope and healing to patients and their families every day. This season, please consider giving a monetary donation to help East Tennessee Children’s Hospital provide more miracles for children like Kamerie!
