
DATE: Saturday, May 31, 1997                TAG: 9705300081

SECTION: DAILY BREAK LOCAL       PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LOUIS HANSEN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  102 lines

MIRACLE BABY WILL MAKE TOUCHING APPEAL ON BEHALF OF HOSPITALS

KELLY WRIGHT refused her daughter Daughtry just once, the first time she saw her.

Daughtry was born a squirming purple waif at 24 weeks. She fit in the palm of the doctor's hand and weighed no more than an empty clutch purse.

Her translucent skin did not shade the struggles of her small lungs to breath.

The little girl herself seemed aware that it was not her time. Her eyes were fused shut.

When the doctor brought Daughtry to her mother's breast, Kelly cried.

``I was repulsed,'' she said. ``All you think of as a mother is that your baby is going to be fine.''

A weary and woozy first-time mother, Kelly checked out of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital after a one-day stay. She walked down a connecting corridor with her husband, Kent, to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.

Daughtry slept under a clear plastic respiration tent, tubes stuck into her navel serving as an artificial umbilical cord. ``The moment I saw her,'' Kelly said, ``I loved her.''

Daughtry is now 3 1/2 years old and 22 pounds of towheaded spunk. She and her mother attended a White House reception Wednesday for 51 boys and girls from Children's Miracle Network Hospitals across the United States.

Mother and daughter, who live in the Driver section of Suffolk, also will be featured on the 15th annual CMN Telethon, which airs Saturday and Sunday on WVEC-TV (Channel 13).

Duties prevented Kent Wright, a Navy chief petty officer, from participating

The telethon has raised more than $9.3 million for Children's Hospital since 1984. Doctors at the non-profit hospital annually treat 130,000 children from birth to 21 years of age.

For Kent and Kelly, the first pregnancy was not supposed to be an ordeal. In May 1993, they glowed about their first ultrasound, which showed a healthy fetus at 23 weeks.

One week later, during a business trip to the Outer Banks, Kelly went into labor. She was rushed to Norfolk by helicopter.

Only about 10 percent of the babies born at 24 weeks survive.

After birth, Daughtry was moved immediately to Children's Hospital's NICU, which now has 56 beds.

She was surrounded by a womb of technology.

A spotlight cast on her body fought against jaundice. A respirator inhaled and exhaled for her. Tubes, wires and adhesive patches supported and monitored her progress.

Her four-month, $387,000 hospital stay was marked by an almost daily struggle to survive.

Daughtry battled a blood infection that failed to yield after two days of antibiotics. She fought through it.

She nearly died when an artery in her lungs did not close, as it does in full-term babies.

``Her lungs started flooding, and they just weren't doing well,'' said Julia Lomax, a neonatal nurse who cared for Daughtry during her stay at the hospital.

Unless doctors performed open-heart surgery, she would drown in her own blood. Doctors cracked open her rib cage and clamped the tiny vessel.

Toward the end of her stay, she had laser surgery to attach retinas in both of her eyes. Her peripheral vision is permanently limited.

``She's a fighter,'' said Therese Cooper, a neonatal nurse practitioner who also cared for Daughtry.

Kelly spent 115 days at her daughter's bedside - touching her, reading to her, watching her grow from 18 ounces to 4 pounds, 13 ounces.

``Whatever energy Daughtry needed, Kelly gave it to her,'' Lomax said.

She left the hospital with her parents Sept. 7, almost to the day the date that Kelly was originally due.

Daughtry attends physical therapy regularly to increase her motor skills and vision. The Wrights plan to enroll her in regular kindergarten classes when she turns 5.

``She's sassy,'' Kelly said. ``I've had to learn to let her go.''

Daughtry spent a recent spring morning cautiously crawling over a wooden play set and swings at the Beech Grove United Methodist Church in Driver. She tottered buoyantly through a make-believe pirate's ship.

The shy girl will appear on the CMN telethon live from Disney World in Orlando, Fla., on Saturday, helping the pitch for donations.

The little blonde has a way of not being refused.

After an hour of tumbling and sliding in the church playground, she decided to make a new friend. ``For you,'' she said, and placed a violet on a picnic table next to this new friend's notebook.

She smiled and trotted away for a few more tumbles down the slide. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by John H. Sheally/The Virginian-Pilot

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CHILDREN'S MIRACLE NETWORK

CMN is a non-profit organization to raise money and awareness for

its 165 affiliated children's hospitals in Canada and the United

States. It has raised more than $1.05 billion since its first

telethon in 1983.

National hosts for this year's telethon include Mary Lou Retton,

John Schneider, Mary Hart and Merlin Olsen.

This year's local telethon will be hosted by WVEC-TV news

personalities Sherri Brennen, Joe Flanagan, Terry Zahn and Regina

Mobley. The 21-hour event will be broadcast live from the lobby of