We at Live Oak First Baptist ask that you keep this family in your prayers as they face this ordeal.
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Tiny baby doing well
Beale couple makes daily trips to see son
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Newborn Johnathan Gust rests in an isolette while his mother, Valerie, and her 13-year-old son, Thomas, visit the Special Care Nurseries at the University of California, Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento last week. The Beale family is making the one-hour trip almost daily to spend time with the nearly 3-month premature baby. |
Daniel Witter
Appeal-Democrat
Read the Article as publishedAlmost every evening Valerie and Robert Gust stand over an incubator gazing down at a tiny boy bundled in a diaper and blankets among machines and busy nurses.
It has been nearly a month since their son Johnathan Gust was born at 1 pound 8 ounces and 12 inches long at the University of California, Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento. Since then he has rested in an incubator surrounded by machinery and nurses that help keep him alive.
And nearly every day Johnathan's parents, who live on Beale Air Force Base, make the drive to touch his hand or stroke his head. He is too fragile to hold.
Johnathan Gust was born June 26 at 28 weeks in gestation, more than 12 weeks before his Sept. 16 due date.
The Gusts dream of the day they will be allowed to take him home, but that day will be Sept. 16, almost two months from now. In the meantime the family makes the hour-long trip every day from Beale to visit their son.
Chris Kaufman /Appeal-Democrat Robert Gust holds the hand of his newborn son, Johnathan, inside an isolette at University of California, Davis Children's Hospital in Sacramento on Wednesday. Born June 26, the baby weighed just 1.5 pounds at birth. "It's heartbreaking," said Valerie Gust. "It's really hard. I'm lucky to have a lot of support."
The gasoline and care is adding up, and friends have established an account to help the Gusts with expenses. As of Friday, they had raised $398, according to family friend Cathy Brodersen.
Friends also have been lending support, such as baby-sitting the couple's two other children or offering to help with whatever the family needs.
"For everything that she's going through ... it's amazing," Brodersen said. "Their positive attitude is contagious and it makes you want to help them out."
The pregnancy caught them off-guard, Valerie Gust said.
"It was a surprise. We weren't planning on having any more children," she said laughing. "We thought we were being cautious and we weren't."
"I was pretty much speechless. I didn't know what to think," she added.
The pregnancy went well, but by the 26th week she said that Johnathan wasn't getting the nutrition he needed from her body. Gust had preeclampsia, which is brought on by high blood pressure.
"He was two weeks behind in growth," she said. So a decision was made to deliver him by cesarean section on June 26.
When he comes home, Johnathan will join his two other brothers, Thomas, 13, and Gary, 7.
"I can't stress enough how much you need family," said Valerie Gust.
The pregnancy brought some fear to the Gusts because she had preeclampsia with one of her previous pregnancies, which turned out fine, although the baby also was delivered by cesarean section.
Each year 400,000 babies are born premature or underweight in the United States, according to the American Association for Premature Infants, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of health, developmental and educational services for premature infants, children and their families.
The cost for prenatal care varies widely, said Martha Alcott, spokeswoman for the UCD Medical Center.
She could not give an estimate of how much premature care costs at the hospital because there are too many variables involved. It depends on the needs of each child, she said. Nationwide, costs can run as much as $2,000 per day, she said.
"Younger babies, smaller babies, sicker babies stay longer than older, heavier and less sick babies," she said.
So far, Johnathan is doing well, the Gusts said.
Robert Gust, who is a sergeant and crew chief of a U-2 ground crew, said the drive to visit his son makes for a long day.
"I just wish he was closer," he said.
Both he and Valerie said the support form the base has helped, whether it was an offer of time off to people asking about Johnathan's welfare.
"His whole unit is terrific people," Valerie Gust said.
