Shelby Hardy
USA
Our NAIT Story
Our NAIT journey began September 2021. We had a normal pregnancy, excited to meet our little boy. My water broke at 38 weeks, 16 hours of labor, and a little pushing and there was our baby boy.
He was perfect! He was nursing about 4 hours later when the nurse noticed petechiae all over his little body. They ran a STAT CBC and his platelets came back at 13,000. When they repeated the CBC they had dropped to 9,000. Our baby boy was immediately taken to the NICU. No one seemed to have a thought as to why our baby had low platelets. He was transferred to a new hospital with a higher level of care NICU.
We spent the next 8 days getting different stories/theories. Their main theory is that it was caused by the COVID antibodies when he was born. Nothing makes you feel worse than nurses and doctors making you feel like it was your fault your baby was in the hospital. A pediatric haematologist was consulted and she seemed to be the only one with a different theory (NAIT). After 4 platelet transfusions, 2 IVIG treatments, and 8 days in the NICU our baby’s labs stabilized, and we were able to go home. We were so fortunate to never have any intracranial hemorrhage or internal bleeding.
We followed up with the haematologist and (after getting the correct blood work) we were diagnosed with NAIT. Our baby boy is 18 months old now and is thriving. We are so blessed with this sweet babe, however, this diagnosis does still weigh on us. We always wanted more children and now we’re not sure if that is in the cards for us. We are always looking for new discoveries or studies in the NAIT world. We are hoping some kind of routine testing will become available so that others do not have to ride the same rollercoaster we did. Praying for all the NAIT families.
Shelby Hardy
