NC small wonder celebrates first happy birthday

Gwyneth Rose Lawrenson, right, was born a year ago weighing little more than a pound. Her mother, Tricia, center, had a double lung transplant 10 months earlier. They are shown here with dad, Nathan. (Courtesy photo)

By Connie Sage

A year after Gwyneth Rose Lawrenson was born - weighing little more than a pound - and nine months after her mother had a double lung transplant, mom and baby are doing fine.

Gwyneth celebrated her first birthday last week with a checkup at Duke University Medical Center. At birth, the micro-preemie weighed 1 pound, 6 ounces. Today she weighs nearly 13 pounds.

Tricia Lawrenson also was at Duke last week for minor surgery to repair a vocal c ord damaged during her April 2 lung transplants. Tricia has cystic fibrosis, an inherited, chronic disease that primarily affects the lungs.

I'm feeling good - definitely back to normal the past couple of months, Tricia said Friday. I'd like to acknowledge that the wisdom of all my doctors and the grace of God saved us. We had so much support during that time - it was overwhelmingly good for me, and it helped me rapidly recover.

Of the 700 lung transplants done at Duke since 1995, the 26-year-old Outer Banks woman is the first lung transplant patient who gave birth just weeks before the procedure, according to David Zaas, one of Tricia's doctors.

While Tricia has had to undergo more than five months of chemotherapy for lymphoma in the past year, there is no sign that she is rejecting the donated lungs, said her husband, Nathan Lawrenson.

The lymphoma in her chest cavity is nowhere to be seen, and an infection she's been treated for with antibiotics is nearly gone, Tricia said. Her hair, which usually is poker straight, is growing back wavy.

At birth, Nathan could slip his wedding band over his new-born daughter's wrist and glide it to her shoulder. Today Gwyneth, with huge blue eyes, is 24 inches long but still small for her age and under-developed, Nathan said. She may require eye surgery this year and likely will need to wear glasses.

Tricia became eligible for a lung transplant in 2007 as her cystic fibrosis worsened. But that September, the day before she was to leave for pre-transplant physical therapy at Duke, she learned she was pregnant.

She was temporarily ineligible for a lung transplant. Doctors told her there was a good chance neither she nor her baby would survive the pregnancy, and they recommended an abortion.

But Tricia had been praying for a miracle baby, her husband said, and the couple agreed to go ahead with the pregnancy. She was admitted to Duke two days before Christmas 2007. On Jan. 3, 2008, she was transferred to Duke's intensive care unit and put on a ventilator. Five days later, an emergency C-section was performed and Gwyneth was born.

On the morning of April 2, Nathan's 27th birthday, Tricia received a double lung transplant. She held her new daughter, her only child, a week later.

People around the world have followed the Lawrensons' story on Nathan's Web site, www.confessionsofacfhusband.com

Because Nathan, who's in charge of music and creative arts for Nags Head Church, is not a cystic fibrosis gene carrier, Gwyneth does not have the disease.

Sometime in the next couple of weeks, family and friends will be invited to a birthday party for Gwyneth, Nathan said.

I'm sure we'll get a cake and let her dig into it, he said.