A Powerful Message

Meet a Former March of Dimes National Ambassador Family

By Donna Smith and Debora Geary

At first glance, Jeff and Susan Henderson have a pretty standard storybook life: fulfilling careers, a 20-year marriage after becoming high school sweethearts and an absolutely beautiful daughter, Emma.

It's a story with a happy ending, but it almost took a different turn. Eight years ago Emma was born three months early, weighing less than 2 pounds. Doctors warned she had only a very small chance of surviving and would have a lot of problems even if she did beat the odds.

Most expectant moms spend the last few weeks of pregnancy eagerly waiting. Susan Henderson, a busy lawyer, never had that chance. She had not quite reached the six-month mark when she suddenly went into labor. Susan was in the hospital for the next 10 days trying to delay Emma's arrival, and give her a precious few more days to grow and mature. Emma was born weighing 1 pound, 12 ounces and measuring a tiny 13 inches long. Susan and her husband, Jeff, spent the next 101 days in the hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) watching their little girl fight to live.

In fact, the first time Jeff Henderson, a 41-year-old father from Oklahoma City, Okla., really looked at his daughter was through a NICU warmer at Integris Baptist Medical Center. Despite an early entrance Emma is now thriving, and a March of Dimes National Ambassador.

"The first thought I had when Emma was born was that there was no way she would ever live," says Jeff. "I was in the operating room with my wife, Susan, and stood next to the doctor as she delivered Emma. All I could think was that she was so small and yet so perfect. I immediately began to worry about what consequences she would face if she did survive."

Despite the worry, there was just as much joy and wonder for Jeff, and he knew he had to keep the faith for both his wife and daughter. "I think I knew then that if I kept the faith and fought just as hard as my Emma, everything would be OK," he says. "One worry that troubled me deeply was how my wife would handle having Emma born so early and so fragile. Susan was very sick, and during the first two weeks of Emma's life, doctors told me to be prepared to lose both my wife and my newborn daughter."

In the NICU, Emma struggled with severe respiratory distress and a heart disorder and required laser surgery to save her eyesight. She had five neurosurgeries before she was a year old. Despite all of this medical intervention, the doctors continued to warn that Emma would likely be severely mentally and physically disabled.

Emma beat those odds, but the Hendersons still deal with the effects of Emma's prematurity. She lives with a permanent shunt to drain fluid off her brain and mild cerebral palsy. But Jeff's faith prevailed, and Emma is now a happy little girl.

Want to see more?

• Going Home Alone
• Nurturing Your NICU Infant
• Your Preemie's First Year
• Talk about it!