Cheyanne Kendrick was born March 10 at the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa. She was immediately admitted to the NICU after inhaling fetal excrement and becoming ill. A wide community effort between the Naval Hospital and local Okinawan hospitals and new equipment helped save her life. (Fred Zimmerman / S&S)
Cheyanne Kendrick was born March 10 at the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa. She was immediately admitted to the NICU after inhaling fetal excrement and becoming ill. A wide community effort between the Naval Hospital and local Okinawan hospitals and new equipment helped save her life. (Fred Zimmerman / S&S)
Heather Gregg, a nurse in the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, checks on Cheyanne Kendrick March 22. (Fred Zimmerman / S&S)
Heather Gregg, a nurse in the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, checks on Cheyanne Kendrick March 22. (Fred Zimmerman / S&S)
CAMP LESTER, Okinawa — Quick cooperation between local Okinawan hospitals and the U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa helped save a newborn’s life March 12.
Airman 1st Class Kevin Kendrick and wife Sharon were excited about the coming birth of their second child, but shortly after being admitted to the naval hospital, the doctors told the couple the baby’s heart rate was too low.
“The heart rate should’ve been between 130 and 160,” said Kevin Kendrick, who works in maintenance with the 67th Fighter Squadron. “The lowest I saw her heart rate drop was about 70. They said she was not getting enough oxygen.”
Sharon Kendrick said a doctor had to break her water during labor, and that’s when doctors noticed what might be wrong. They found meconium, or fecal material, in the water and knew normal care wasn’t going to cut it for the baby. A neonatologist quickly was brought in for the birth.
Within an hour of being admitted, the Kendricks had a baby girl. Cheyanne made her entrance into the world at 8:49 p.m. March 10.
Joy quickly turned to concern when doctors told the new parents Cheyanne’s condition was deteriorating and the newborn was rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
Neonatologists estimated Cheyanne’s chance of survival at 10 percent.
Cheyanne was diagnosed with Meconium Aspiration Syndrome, according to Air Force Maj. Bobbi Hawk, the hospital’s director of neonatology. The baby had inhaled fecal material during delivery; it was complicating her breathing and causing a serious infection in her lungs. Hawk said it happens in an average of 12 percent of full-term births but less than 10 percent of those newborns develop the potentially life-threatening disease.
Hawk said the disease has only one cure — time — but sometimes there isn’t enough.
“It can be so severe that the baby can die before recovery,” Hawk said.
As Cheyanne’s condition worsened, Hawk said, an extreme measure was considered to keep her alive: extra corporeal membrane oxygenation. ECMO is a heart and lung bypass that allows an artificial heart and lung to take over the blood flow to the body, allowing the lungs to heal.
But the hospital here doesn’t have an ECMO team, which includes about 20 doctors and much equipment, Hawk said. A team in San Antonio was placed on standby, but flying to Okinawa would take 36 hours. There was a chance Cheyanne wouldn’t make it that long, Hawk said.
There was another option.
“Since about 2000 in the U.S., inhaled nitric oxide has been approved for use in respiratory failure cases,” Hawk said. The gas helps put oxygen back into the body and has been a viable alternative to ECMO, he said.
Hawk said the hospital ordered the ventilator required for nitric oxide two years ago but it didn’t arrive until February — and necessary accessories and calibration equipment had only arrived the same day Cheyanne was born.
And the hospital still lacked the nitric oxide.
Hawk said while the gas has been approved in the United States, it’s hard to find in Japan, where its use still is being researched.
The morning of March 12, the decision was made to assemble the machine, calibrate it and try to find the gas, Hawk said.
“If we couldn’t get the gas in a six- to eight-hour window, we would have the ECMO team from San Antonio come out,” she said.
Staff members from the NICU, the hospital’s materials management section and Japanese interns dropped everything that Friday morning to fight for Cheyanne’s life. After numerous phone calls, they discovered that a medical supply company just had delivered its only two tanks of nitric oxide to Chubu Hospital.
After learning of the urgent need for the gas, Chubu agreed to sell the Naval Hospital one of its two tanks, Hawk said.
“It’s not something we would normally do,” said Lt. Cmdr. Rose Tan, neonatologist, but it happened “because of the relationship between the hospitals.” Tan said the hospitals also teamed to provide care for another baby in December, which helped build relations.
A Chubu doctor said his hospital was more than happy to help.
“We immediately responded,” said Dr. Ryuichi Genkawa, of the NICU at Chubu Hospital. “We are very glad that the gas could help to save the child at the Naval Hospital here on the same island.”
Tan said one more problem — attaching a Japanese tank to a piece of U.S. equipment — was overcome when the medical supply company sent an engineer to the hospital. Tan was able to create an adapter.
The neonatologists who administered the treatment said they were quite surprised by the result.
“Once we turned on the gas, she had an immediate response,” Hawk said. “Within an hour, the odds were reversed to a 90 percent chance of survival.”
But they weren’t in the clear yet, Tan said. The difference between Japanese and U.S. ventilators was causing the nitric oxide to be used at a faster rate.
Tan immediately began weaning Cheyanne off the gas to try to conserve it. The hospital staff, meanwhile, found several more tanks at Ryukyu University Hospital — but it’s against that hospital’s policy to sell supply items. So the hospital returned one canister to the supply company, who then sold it to the Navy hospital.
“What was amazing is that everything fell into place at the right time,” Hawk said.
Sharon Kendrick said she was relieved at Cheyanne’s response to the gas and thought it was a miracle, but some caution remained.
“We were still nervous,” Kevin Kendrick said. “We didn’t want to get our hopes up.”
The parents added they are grateful for the treatment and care their daughter received. Kevin Kendrick said that whenever they went to the NICU, a doctor or nurse always was standing over Cheyanne, making sure she was doing all right.
“I just wonder if I was part of the civilian world, if she would’ve gotten the same treatment,” he said.
While every breath Cheyanne now takes is an effort, Hawk said she’s at least doing it on her own. She added that the breathing should become easier and the Kendricks should be able to take their daughter home in the next two to three weeks.
The Kendricks said many people helped them through the process, from the hospital staff to the 67th Fighter Squadron chain of command, family and friends. But Kevin Kendrick said he also thinks a strong will to live helped his daughter make it.
“I think she wanted to succeed and survive,” he said. “She’s a fighter.”
— Chiyomi Sumida contributed to this report.
