ECMO gives life to baby Mercer

If not for the quick-thinking teams and advanced capabilities available at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, Roberts said Mercer probably wouldn’t be here today.

It all began when Roberts went into labor at MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup. Both she and Mercer showed extreme signs of distress and within 15 minutes, she was wheeled into the operating room for an emergency C-section. Mercer was born with pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lung’s arteries), had a high fever and was not breathing. He also had meconium aspiration, a rare birth complication when babies inhale amniotic fluid and meconium — the baby’s first poop — into their lungs at some point during the birth process. If not addressed promptly, meconium aspiration can be fatal.

Rapidly declining, Mercer was immediately transported to MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital’s Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where doctors discovered he also had group B streptococcal septicemia (a bacterial infection in the bloodstream). Mercer was intubated and put on a ventilator. Doctors couldn’t determine how good or bad his outcome would be, but they knew that there weren’t many options. They advised Roberts’ fiancé, Nolan Stephenson, that Mercer’s situation was so dire, he would likely not survive if they didn’t put him on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

ECMO is the highest level of life support. Working like an artificial organ, the machine pumps, oxygenates and warms blood before recirculating it into the body. ECMO externally bypasses the heart and lungs, allowing the organs to rest and heal.

Mercer was put on ECMO.

Roberts was discharged two days later and was able to visit Mercer, who was now in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Mary Bridge Children’s. Overcoming her own complications and recovery, she couldn’t stay at the hospital, but relied on calls and messages from Mercer’s care team. Meanwhile, hospital staff arranged a room next to Mercer’s so Stephenson could stay with him.

When he was 4 days old, Mercer was also put on kidney dialysis.

“That was the worst, most horrific time for us,” Roberts said. “Things were happening so fast, and we had no idea what was really going on, but even then, what stood out to us repeatedly was how amazing the staff was.”

Mercer’s super-human strength

At 6 days old, miraculously things started looking up for Mercer. He was able to come off both ECMO and dialysis, and he also opened his eyes for the first time. His doctors and nurses knew what a big milestone this was, especially with the given circumstances, so they took pictures and videos to send to Roberts and Stephenson.

Baby Mercer opening his eyes for the first time

Two weeks later, Mercer graduated out of the PICU and to the medical-surgical floor, where he continued to improve. “He had to change rooms because he was doing so well getting off his machines,” Roberts said. “We were treated like celebrities and it was just incredible to see how many people at the hospital were championing for Mercer to get better.”

Things continued to improve. A few days later, he was taking full feeds at the hospital and making strides towards being discharged.

On his 1-month birthday, Mercer was strong enough to go home. As a precaution, he was discharged with a feeding tube and oxygen support. The little fighter showed everyone how strong he was and just three days later, Mercer was off from his feeding tube. In May, he came off oxygen support.

Baby Mercer going home on his 1-month birthday.

“He’s almost graduated from all of his therapies and he’s done amazingly in every category of the Bayley [Scales of Infant and Toddler Development] skills test,” Roberts said.

Mercer continues to receive follow-up care from some of his specialists at Mary Bridge Children’s, but for the most part, Roberts said, “he’s a normal baby now!”

Roberts calls Mercer her “super-human” because ECMO gave him a boost in life and now he won’t slow down. He’s growing and thriving and is blowing everyone who knows his story away with how well he’s recovered.

“Mercer’s life was literally in their hands, yet they wanted to involve us in his care, in decision-making, in making sure we understood what they were doing,” Roberts said. “I just want to thank everyone. Literally all the staff, from the time he was admitted to the time he went home, just went above and beyond for us.”

Thanks to community support, families at Mary Bridge Children’s can stay in a family-friendly environment so they can all focus on their child’s healing. You can help families like Mercer’s with a gift to Mary Bridge Children’s Foundation.

Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital provides comprehensive specialty and primary care services and is the state-designated Level II Pediatric Trauma Center for Western Washington. Learn more about the services available.