Christmas miracle baby: Vincent family celebrates first year with child after 84 days in NICU

As Delta Dental continues its holiday tradition of pledging donations to seven children’s hospitals across the state, the organization is giving Ayers Children’s Hospital a more prominent role in the celebration this year.

The last two years, Delta Dental has sought public input to who should get the largest share of the $75,000 they give, and Ayers has won the social media competition both years.

With that kind of public support combined with Ayers’ celebration of its 30^th anniversary of helping children and families since it was founded as part of Jackson-Madison County General Hospital, nurses and NICU patients played a big role in the campaign as footprints of premature babies being treated at Ayers is on the front of the Christmas card of this year’s promotion.

One pair of those footprints are those of Michael Vincent, who was born on Dec. 19, 2021, and is described by his mother, Breion, as last year’s Christmas miracle.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t even remember last Christmas because I’d just gotten out of the hospital the day before Christmas Eve, so I was still getting used to how life was going to be for the next little while,” Breion said. “But we just had a birthday party for him, and we’re definitely celebrating making it through last Christmas and getting to this one.”

Michael, known in the family as “Little Mike,” is the first child of Breion and Michael Vincent. Breion was making all her doctor’s visits, and doctors noticed Little Mike wasn’t developing properly.

“He wasn’t growing fast enough in the uterus, so they sent me to Dr. Nathan Hoeldtke who works with high-risk pregnancies,” Breion said. “They diagnosed the problem as the umbilical cord wasn’t getting enough blood flow to him and wasn’t sufficient enough for him to grow the way he should.”

Hoeldtke’s prognosis of the situation wasn’t the best news for Breion to receive.

“They had me come in for weight checks for him three times a week, and after a couple of weeks, he told me that Little Mike could come soon – even by the end of the weekend and this visit was on a Friday,” Breion said. “He said Little Mike would probably be looking at staying in the NICU for a while, but he couldn’t even guarantee Little Mike would survive.”

Breion said her mother accompanied her to the appointment and grabbed her hand as soon as the non-guarantee of survival was given.

“I was glad she was there, but I knew then I had to do what I had to do to take care of my baby,” Breion said.

Less than 48 hours later, Breion woke up on Sunday morning, and Little Mike wasn’t moving.

“Usually I could feel him moving, but there was no movement this morning,” Breion said. “So my husband, Michael, took me to the hospital to see if we could find out what was going on.”

Breion was rushed to the ob/gyn staff at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital and taken care of there. The report was that Little Mike was alive, but his heartbeat was irregular and needed to be delivered immediately through C-section.

“They put me under, and I don’t really remember anything after that,” Breion said.

When Breion’s senses did return to her, she had a baby boy that weight 1 pound and 12 ounces. His due date was March 14, so his birthday of Dec. 19 was nearly three months early. The NICU at Ayers Children’s Hospital is a Level 3, which meant the Vincent family didn’t have to go to Memphis or Nashville for Little Mike to be treated.

His stay in the NICU was 84 days while his lungs continued to develop as well as other vital organs.

Breion was able to check in on him daily if she wasn’t staying there with him, so she continued her work as a dentist at Dove Family Dentistry.

“The nurses in the NICU were great and took care of Little Mike like he was their own child,” Breion said. “I’m friends on Facebook with all of them and had a text group going with them that we still message each other now a year later when they want to see how he’s doing.

“And it was so great that he could get the care he needs right here in Jackson, because even the morning that I went to the hospital, if he and I couldn’t get the care that was needed in Jackson, then we’re talking about a helicopter ride to Memphis that would’ve added more time before they could deliver him and treat him. And who knows what might’ve happened in that time? That’s something I don’t want to think about.”

So now, having celebrated his first birthday and preparing for what Breion calls his first Christmas, she’s thinking about how fortunate her little family is.

“As rough as the last year was, we’re at a point now where Little Mike is healthy and still has to have different checkups every six months or so to make sure he’s developing the right way,” Breion said. “When he was first born, Tennessee Early Intervention Services were putting him on a level of comparing him to other babies that were born when he was supposed to be born.

“But he’s doing well and developing and now he’s starting to catch up with other babies that were born when he was. But it doesn’t matter to me how quickly he continues to develop. He’s here with us and healthy, and we’re grateful for that this year.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news