My boy’s been quarantined for months after he was born early – watching him kiss family through glass breaks my heart
BRAVE youngster Haven Smith was born 100 days early, quarantined in hospital for eight months, released for five months and is now back in quarantine - but is as happy as ever.
Little Haven weighed just 410 grammes, which is less than a pound, when he arrived on January 1 2019 and had to be ventilated at birth, his mum Mandi told Fabulous Digital.
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Single mum Mandi had been in labour for six days before Haven was born at 25 weeks following an emergency caesarean section at hospital in Mountain View, California.
Kept in hospital for eight months - until August last year - doctors originally gave Haven a "less than 10 percent chance of survival".
But the now one-year-old proved doctors wrong and is now doing amazingly well, although he suffers from hypertension (high blood pressure) and needs a kidney transplant.
However, because of coronavirus and his underlying health conditions he has been isolating indoors since February with neither mum nor son leaving the house.
And it's a real treat for Haven when he gets to see them - especially his beloved godfather, family friend Vic.
"It's heartbreaking seeing him like this," Mandi said, saying she hated that friends and family were only able to kiss him through glass.
"But catching covid-19 could be deadly for him.
"We don't leave. don't'My mom is 68 and I have asthma too. The only people we see are Haven’s nurses."
Mandi, an army veteran, told how she "weighed up pros and cons of staying indoors" before she decided not to leave in the middle of February.
It was before her state implemented a formal lockdown. "I decided it could help prevent him going to ER in this time if needed," she said.
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And this isn't even Haven's first quarantine.
"He spent his first eight months of life in the NICU at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital," explained Mandi. "But he is coping amazingly.
"He is a ball of energy like any other kiddo his age.
"Luckily he doesn’t care we are all inside. I feel for the parents who have children who are old enough to ask questions and don’t understand why they can’t see their friends or extended families."
This mum urges you to help and support bigger babies just like ones born premature.
And Coronation Street’s Kym Marsh helps us deliver cheer to parents and premature babies.