The McGuire Family

When Beth and John McGuire learned in late 2009 that they were expecting boy/girl twins the following summer, they were ecstatic. Beth savored the joys and hardships of pregnancy and looked forward to achieving her dream of motherhood. She worked hard to be healthy, to give her babies the best possible start.

But as her pregnancy progressed, she learned that to some extent, that healthy start was beyond her control. Beth learned that her daughter had reversed diastolic flow in her umbilical cord, which essentially means it stopped working. Ultrasounds monitored the cord flow until she became so weak that the blood actually reversed out of her and back into Beth.

“It was at that point the doctors told us we had to make a decision whether to let her go or take both twins via C-section to try and save her, while exposing both to the host of risks that result from prematurity,” Beth says. Beth and John faced one of the most difficult decisions parents can face. Ultimately, after much agonizing and many discussions with their doctors at MGH, they decided to deliver the twins, and try to give their daughter a fighting chance.

Ray and Addison were born at 28 weeks, two days. Ray weighed in at 2 lbs. 5 oz. and Addison weighed 1 lb. 8 oz. Upon their very early arrival, they were presented with a host of health issues, most related to their prematurity, some unrelated altogether. Within the first three weeks of their birth, Ray was diagnosed with patent ductus arteriosus and had heart surgery. Addison had bilateral brain bleeds. Both children were diagnosed with chronic lung disease, and a general array of life-threatening scares occurred that most parents can’t dream of being faced with upon the birth of their children.

At one point, Addie started showing symptoms of brain swelling. Possible diagnoses included brain tumor and hydrocephalus. “Lucky for us,” Beth says, “She also was diagnosed early on with congenital hypothyroidism. One of the symptoms of hypothyroidism is  that the fontanelles (soft spots) in her cranium were slower to close,  so the swelling didn’t cause any brain damage.”

Doctors ordered an MRI to find the source of the swelling, which meant transporting her seven floors. Upon return to the NICU, she was extubated and suffered a major pulmonary hemorrhage. She survived miraculously, but remained on oxygen for the first 11 months.

Meanwhile, Ray was diagnosed with reflux and presented an allergic reaction to dairy and soy, and was prescribed Prilosec.

Ray was in the NICU 13 weeks, Addie spent 16 weeks. She returned twice to the PICU with fluid in her lungs and cracked ribs resulting from the build up of fluid. She came home on diuretics, vitamins, thyroid meds, oxygen, and a pulse ox monitor strapped to her foot. 

Today, Ray and Addie are healthy, happy two and a half year olds. Beth is a stay at home mother to the twins and their little brother Mikey, who was born at full-term in September of 2011, an experience she calls, “the most important piece of healing my heart after all the trauma we’d been through.”

Each year, the McGuire clan participates in the March for Babies in Boston. This event gives them the opportunity to catch up with the NICU doctors and nurses who, against overwhelming odds, saved the twins’ lives. Beth says, “The MGH NICU became our home for four months; not our second home, our home. Everyone at MGH whom we met along the way and who helped care for our children and us, in particular our phenomenal nursing staff, are forever our friends, our saviors, and most importantly, our family. We are eternally grateful.”


Written by: Lindsay Atherton, Mission Mom and Guest Blogger (with substantial help from Beth McGuire, Mom of Miracles)