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Light Rain Medical nightmare for former Oceansider
Oceanside native Ashley Spofford experienced every parent’s nightmare last month when her 2-month-old twin daughters, who had been born premature, stopped breathing. Spofford and her fiancé, John Oliver, who live in Maine, were visiting her parents in Oceanside at the time, but the twins have since been airlifted to a Main hospital, where one remains in a pediatric intensive care unit — and their parents are facing mounting medical bills.
When they were born Jan. 13, Nya Oliver weighed 2 pounds, 14 ounces and Gianna Oliver weighed 2 pounds, 9 ounces. They spent the first six weeks of their lives in the neonatal intensive care unit of the Eastern Maine Medical Center, in Bangor, before they were sent home Feb. 27.
On March 9, Spofford gathered the twins and her four older children and headed for her parents’ home on Madison Avenue in Oceanside, to introduce the infants to their grandparents Kristi and Joseph Forte and their aunt Alexa.
“We were so excited to have them home, finally,” Spofford said. “We wanted the family to meet them.” But during their visit, she said, Nya started having episodes of apnea — an interruption of the breathing pattern — turning blue and appearing lifeless. “My mom and I began working on her,” she recounted. “We gave her breaths and she came to, but then it happened again.”
“I don’t know CPR,” Kristi Fote said, “but I gave her a breath, and Ashley gave her two more.”
“We called for an ambulance,” Spofford added. “However, she was breathing by the time they came. About half an hour later, John was feeding Nya and she started doing it again. She turned really white and dusky, so we rushed her to South Nassau [Communities Hospital], which sent her within an hour to Winthrop [University] Hospital.” The other twin, Gianna, was fine. Oliver stayed with Nya at the hospital, while Spofford went back to Oceanside.
The next day, while Spofford was on her way to Winthrop with Gianna to visit Nya, Gianna stopped breathing. Spofford headed for Winthrop’s emergency room, and Gianna was admitted as well.
The infants were released on March 14 after several days of tests. But the spells soon began again, and they were rushed back to Winthrop the following day.
