DATE: Friday, August 1, 1997                TAG: 9707310170

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 12   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARK YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   66 lines

MIRACLE BABY MARKS BIRTHDAY WITH PICNIC

A prayer of thanksgiving and a blessing were offered last Saturday at Woodstock Park. Heads bowed as dozens of people clasped hands and formed a great circle around 1-year-old Eboni Olivia Mayo.

The group was gathered to celebrate a hard-won first birthday. Their circle symbolized the linking of the deep trust of a family and a small army of prayer warriors to a medical institution dedicated to saving children.

Eboni was born at 25 weeks gestational age, just three weeks older than the youngest baby ever to survive premature birth at the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters. Born on July 31, 1996, Eboni did not leave the hospital to head for her Virginia Beach home until Nov. 26. Even at that time she had to have a feeding tube inserted in her stomach because she was unable to take a bottle.

Teresa Mayo, 32, is an insurance specialist at USAA. Her husband David, 34, is a trucker for Wilson Trucking Company. They had seen their first baby, Andrew Lloyd, die after being born premature, at only 20 weeks. Teresa Mayo underwent a medical procedure to correct an incompetent cervix and thought the problem was solved. ``We never thought about not having another baby,'' said David Mayo. ``We've been married almost 10 years,'' Teresa Mayo said. ``The time was right and we knew we wanted children.'' So when she started to go into labor at only 24 weeks, the word went out to friends, family and members of their church, Providence United Church of Christ - start praying. Labor was stopped for a week, then began again.

``There have definitely been a lot of prayers answered over this baby,'' said a smiling Janet Knauff. Knauff was one of Eboni's nurses in the neo-natal intensive care unit at King's Daughters. ``This is one special family,'' she said. ``I call them the Beaver Cleaver family. Not all babies have that, but Mom and Dad, the Grandmas and Grandpa were there everyday.''

More than 70 people showed up at the long-awaited birthday party. Twenty children lined up to play games, run and play. Church volunteers cooked hot dogs and hamburgers, fish and barbecue. Cole slaw, hush puppies, french fries and watermelon rounded out the meal. The Mayos purchased all the food themselves. One picnic table was piled high with gifts; nearby two huge sheet cakes covered another table.

``This was about my fourth or fifth thought after Eboni was born,'' said Teresa Mayo. ``I started buying sodas before Memorial Day. I've got about a thousand sodas.'' They sent out 240 invitations to the event. ``Some of these people have only heard and prayed about Eboni. This is their chance to see her,'' she said.

For nurses Mary Beth Sanders and Michelle Yusko, this was a very special event. With Knauff, they had formed the core team that hovered around Eboni for her 118-day hospital stay. ``There are so many things that could have gone wrong,'' said Sanders. ``To have it turn out this way - you just can't explain it. Extremely premature babies such as Eboni are subject to a variety of problems such as blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, speech delay, and brain damage, Sanders ex-plained.

Yusko said, ``When she was born she couldn't eat or breath on her own. She had to be on a respirator and continuous heart monitor.

Eboni had numerous challenges to overcome including dying tissue where an incision was made for her cardiac catheter, and a severe reaction to a prescribed drug. Though she bears scars from her ordeal, and must undergo more physical therapy, she seems a normal baby in all respects. Weighing almost 18 pounds, she crawls, gurgles, plays with car keys and puts them directly into her mouth like any other 1-year-old. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARK YOUNG

Eboni Olivia Mayo celebrated her first birthday with a party at

Woodstock Park.

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