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Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Doctors told us our newborn's grunting was just normal 'baby noise'... but now she is on life support
Imagine the devastation of finding out that what you thought were normal 'baby noises' were actually a sign that your newborn was in severe distress. It seems like every parent's nightmare - but it was a reality for Stephanie Mulhall-Atkinson, 37, and Justin Atkinson, 33. The couple, from Canada, welcomed their daughter, Sloane, in October 2024, and immediately after her birth, they noticed the newborn was making strange 'noises' that sounded like she was 'grunting.' But doctors assured them that she was just extra vocal, declared Sloane as 'perfectly healthy,' and 'released her without any concern.' Six weeks later, Stephanie and Justin watched their daughter go from 'a happy, smiley, and chatty' baby to 'intubated in the PICU' and fighting for her life. While chatting with the Daily Mail about the horrific ordeal, Stephanie explained, 'We raised concern [about her grunting noises] to many different doctors and nurses while we were in the hospital for five days post-birth, including the pediatrician. 'They all said that her lungs sounded clear so she was fine and that she was just a vocal baby making normal baby sounds.' The grunting didn't stop after they brought Sloane home, but Stephanie just assumed it was normal baby gargling because that's what the hospital doctors had told her. 'We were told that it was just her baby noises and that she was very vocal,' she explained. But Sloane began to develop other symptoms. She was sometimes sweaty and seemed extra fussy any time she was held. And when she was about six-and-a-half weeks old, things took a drastic turn when the infant suddenly stopped eating. Stephanie and Justin also noticed a 'very faint blue tint around her mouth,' so they took her to the emergency room. '[When we got there] she was making her grunting noises. As soon as the doctors heard the noises they asked if she had always done that and we said yes and that we were told it was just her normal baby noise,' recalled Stephanie. 'We were then told that it actually is a sign of distress and not normal at all. Everything escalated from there.' Doctors rushed to do tests on the youngster to figure out what was wrong, and they then got the heartbreaking news that Sloane's heart was not working properly. 'They performed an echocardiogram to get a picture of her heart and as soon as the image popped up on the screen we saw the look of "I knew it" on the ER doctor's face,' Stephanie continued. '"Her heart is barely pumping" is all we really remember hearing. She was rushed up to the PICU, sedated and intubated immediately.' Stephanie and Justin soon learned that their newborn was battling something known as dilated cardiomyopathy, which was caused by a 'genetic mutation.' It meant her heart was 'very enlarged' and 'unable to pump hard enough on its own.' They were told she was in end stage heart failure and that she would require a heart transplant to survive. 'There are no words to describe those first acute days and weeks and hearing that your tiny baby needs a heart transplant,' Stephanie said. 'It was an out of body experience. Your brain cannot comprehend that.' They were especially 'devastated and angry' that the doctors after she gave birth had been so dismissive, which meant their little Sloane had spent weeks in distress. 'For the six weeks we had her home we just thought her noises were cute. Finding out that it meant she had been in distress that whole time was unbearable,' Stephanie scathed. 'It should have raised red flags [with the doctors] because [we now know that] grunting a sign of distress in babies.' Sloane is now on a life support device and has been living in the hospital for the past seven months while awaiting her transplant. Stephanie and Justin have raised over $25,000 on GoFundMe, which has made it possible for them to be by her side every step of the way. 'Thanks to the support we have received financially we've been able to both take time off from working and completely focus our attention on her,' shared Stephanie. And she revealed that her daughter is 'thriving' all things considered. 'The device has allowed her to grow and develop "normally." She is the happiest baby EVER and she truly is thriving,' the mom-of-one concluded.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Alcohol use has increased among women — and so have cases of liver disease
Alcohol-related liver disease has more than doubled in the U.S. over the last 20 years. The increase is tied to four groups that make up a greater share of heavy drinkers than they did two decades ago: Women, adults ages 45 and older, people living in poverty, and those with metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome refers to a number of conditions, including high blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol, that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Exactly why these groups are drinking more remains unclear. Vanderbilt University School of Medicine's Dr. Peter Martin previously told NBC News that 'it's become more and more socially acceptable for women to drink as much as men' and George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told The New York Times that he believed older Americans are even less 'likely' to understand the hazards of alcohol. 'Alcohol-related liver disease is the main cause of liver-related death and these results are a major wakeup call to the dangers of drinking,' researcher Dr. Brian Lee, a hepatologist and liver transplant specialist at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California, said in a statement after the new study published Wednesday. The findings, Lee said, provide the first comprehensive look at the demographics of heavy drinking and their relation to liver disease since the 1990s. Because the average drinking rate in the U.S. was unchanged over the last 20 years - outside of the pandemic - it suggested factors such as changing health and demographics may be playing a role. The researchers analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of adults and children in the U.S. from 1999 through 2020. They tracked the total increase in significant liver disease, a point when scar tissue impairs the organ's function, often caused by heavy drinking. More than 51,600 adults died from liver disease in 2020 in the U.S. The researchers looked at the demographic and health profiles of adults, age 20 or older, who drank heavily - eight drinks per week for women and 15 for men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previous research had tied the four groups looked at in this study to a higher risk of liver disease when exposed to alcohol. A separate 2024 study, authored by Lee, found that heavy drinking rose at the pandemic's peak and continued for two years after that. Lee hypothesized that increase may have been due to stress. Liver disease deaths have also roughly doubled over the last 20 years, and the number of annual alcohol deaths due to cancer has doubled in the same time period. Lee believes the results will help to provide doctors with necessary updates to better treat patients and potentially result in more screenings and interventions for Americans in high-risk populations. 'Our results show that the makeup of the American public with heavy alcohol consumption has changed compared to 20 years ago,' he said.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
UnitedHealth says it is under a federal investigation and cooperating
Shares of UnitedHealth Group slipped Thursday after the health care giant said it was under a Department of Justice investigation. The company said it has started complying with both criminal and civil requests from federal investigators and it was cooperating with them. '(UnitedHealth) has a long record of responsible conduct and effective compliance,' the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal said federal officials had launched a civil fraud investigation into how the company records diagnoses that lead to extra payments for its Medicare Advantage, or MA, plans. Those are privately run versions of the government's Medicare coverage program mostly for people ages 65 and over. The company's UnitedHealthcare business covers more than 8 million people as the nation's largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans. The business has been under pressure in recent quarters due to rising care use and rate cuts. UnitedHealth Group Inc. said in February that it wasn't aware of the start of any new activity as the paper reported. The company said Thursday that it reached out to the Justice Department 'after reviewing media reports about investigations into certain aspects of the company's participation in the Medicare program.' UnitedHealth runs one of the nation's largest health insurance and pharmacy benefits management businesses. It also operates a growing Optum business that provides care and technology support. Company shares have mostly shed value since December, when UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in midtown Manhattan on his way to the company's annual investor meeting. The stock price dropped 2%, or $6.13, to $286.50 Thursday morning.
