
DATE: Sunday, November 9, 1997              TAG: 9711090055

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   90 lines

FIGHTING BACK FROM FRAIL BEGINNINGS FORMER PATIENTS GATHER AT AN AREA HOSPITAL TO CELEBRATE BEATING THE ODDS OF PREMATURE BIRTH.

Stacey Goins entered this world early on the morning of Nov. 20, 1975, with a few strikes against her.

Weighing just over 3 pounds, 3 ounces, Goins was two months premature, with lungs that barely functioned. She was about to battle pneumonia, a particularly ominous condition for premature infants, and soon would develop a heart murmur that would only complicate her care.

On that fall morning, Goins' parents were not sure if their new little girl would ever grow up.

``It was touch-and-go there for a while,'' recalled John M. Goins Jr., Stacey's father and a retired Air Force master sergeant who is now a letter carrier with the Hampton post office.

But, oh, what a difference 20 years makes.

On Saturday, as Stacey Goins and other ``graduates'' of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters gathered for a reunion, it was all but impossible to imagine her as frail.

Now 21, she will graduate in December from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical Institute with a degree in chemical engineering. Several large corporations are courting her. She learned to play the flute, enjoys aerobics, was a drum major at Bethel High School in Hampton and won a scholarship with her oratory skills.

In a business that centers on the critical needs of the most frail people, Stacey Goins' presence at the reunion offered hope to many parents that their children have a bright future, that their days of monitors and ventilators and night after uncertain night are past them.

It also doesn't hurt that she has a smile that can light up a room.

``It's nice to be back and see some people who have been through what I went through, knowing that they'll grow up and be healthy like me,'' said Goins, who is weighing options in the food, chemical and semiconductor industries.

Shirley Goins, a music teacher at Yorktown Middle School, said her daughter has been nothing but surprises her whole life.

``The story she wrote that won her the oratory competition really should have been published,'' her mother gushed.

``Aw, mom. It wasn't that good.''

Just then a familiar face about the NICU walked up and introduced herself as Jane Daugherty, the unit's receptionist.

``I remember when you were here,'' Daugherty said to Stacey. ``It's so nice to see you. You know, I was a `preemie,' too. Preemies have a lot of stamina. They keep going on.''

The reunion was in a hospital conference room where toddlers kept their parents busy while moms and dads smiled broadly at nurses and physicians who worked to save once frail lives. The hospital expected 350 people to attend.

Among the most celebrated at Saturday's gathering was April Marie Lawrence, who was born weighing about as much as three sticks of butter and not much longer than a Barbie doll.

Born at 24 weeks gestation - the near threshold for premature babies - baby Lawrence beat long odds to be welcomed back into the hospital as a healthy little girl.

The party was organized by Martha A. Jones, a nurse who coordinates the neonatal follow-up clinic, a place where children are periodically examined to evaluate their developmental progress.

``We've had some kinds stay in the NICU for up to a year, but most of them are here for only a month or so,'' she said. ``Some of these babies are so small that I don't know if Stacey would have been admitted here today.''

Advances in caring for premature infants in the years following Stacey Goins' birth have helped physicians and nurses successfully care for many babies once given little chance of survival.

The majority of premature infants that survive face more comfortable odds, even if they're somewhat longer than full-term babies.

Among them is Ashlyn Sunday, a bright-looking 13-month-old who came into the world 10 weeks early and weighing just over 3 pounds. Her mother, Nicole Sunday, was forced to deliver the child early when her placenta partly separated from her body.

``I didn't get to see her until she was four days old,'' Sunday said. ``I was very scared about losing her.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

PREEMIE REUNION Darryan Alexis Miller, left, 23 months old, and her

grandmother Brenda Miller reunite with April Marie Lawrence, 22

months old, and her mother, Lucy Catbagan, at the Children's

Hospital preemie reunion party Saturday. The two infants once

shared a room in NICU. Darryan weighed 2 pounds, 3 ounces at birth.

April weighed only 13 ounces.

Color photo

Stacey Goins KEYWORDS: PREMATURE INFANT