By Saba BerhieThe Daily Northwestern
Nicholas could fit in his mother’s cupped hands. With multiple wires sprouting from each orifice and his tiny eyes barely opened, he hardly looked human.
“Little Man,” a film shown Tuesday at Evanston Hospital, 2650 Ridge Ave., told Nicholas’ story as part of Prematurity Awareness Month. The hospital is one of 10 in Illinois to offer specialized care for mothers and children, treating 500 infants in 2005.
The documentary also will be shown at the Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. The Illinois March of Dimes sponsored the events.
Nicholas was born 100 days early and weighed one pound. The documentary, the winner of 12 awards, was directed by Nicholas’s mother, Nicole Conn, a renowned director and author. The film shows the journey that Nicole and her partner, Gwen Baba, went through to keep Nicholas alive.
He lived, though he suffers from physical disabilities including hearing loss, nearsightedness and stunted mental development.
“What shocked me was seeing the veins in Nicholas’ head” said Debra Coleman, one of about a dozen attendees at the event.
Coleman, an Evanston resident, is the mother of a 6-year-old boy who was born prematurely. Coleman described her own experiences with prematurity as “smooth sailing” in comparison with that of Nicholas’s parents, but it was still difficult.
“I could see my son’s heart beat, could see his every rib,” Coleman said.
Coleman said an intern told her that her son, who she calls “my little miracle man,” at 1 pound 13 ounces had no chance at life. Now he is a normal child, affected only by delayed social skillsm who reads at a third-grade level and loves music.
November is Prematurity Awareness Month, and the documentary was one of many March of Dimes events, including a dance competition to raise money for premature babies. According to the March of Dimes Web site, 13.1 percent of Illinois live births in 2004 were preterm, a higher proportion than 10 years before.
According to the National Institute of Health, preterm birth is any child born after less than 37 weeks of pregnancy, rather than the normal 40 weeks.
“Fifty percent of premature births have no known causes,” said Shannon Stillwagon, a senior community director for March of Dimes. “March of Dimes does education with women to combat (the known causes).”
Those known causes include outside factors such as alcohol consumption and smoking. March of Dimes also funds research to determine unknown medical causes of premature births.
Fortunately, not all cases are as painful as that of Nicholas. Stephanie Lerner-Ernsteen, a member of the March of Dimes’ Board of Directors and one of the event’s organizers, said the movie depicts the most extreme case.
“Everything bad that can go wrong does go wrong,” she said.
Reach Saba Berhie at [email protected].
