Baby Nathaniel is finally home - Infant spent first year after his birth in hospital

After spending the first year of his life in the hospital, baby Nathaniel Robinson is finally home with his family, having been discharged from the St Ann's Bay Regional Hospital last month.

At birth, little Nathaniel was diagnosed with Pierre Robin malformation, a rare congenital birth defect which results in an underdeveloped jaw, backward displacement of the tongue, and upper airway obstruction. As a result, he needed an urgent tracheostomy and gastrostomy tube surgery at the Bustamante Hospital for Children (BHC) in St Andrew. However, at the time, no intensive care unit (ICU) beds were available. Faced with the 'no ICU bed' situation, the child's parents reached out to THE STAR, expressing fears that without the surgery the tiny tot's chance of survival looked uncertain. Last November, Christina Redway, Nathaniel's mother told THE STAR that it was the worst that he has been.

"The entire medical staff of the hospital was at the paediatric ward with him. They have to be resuscitating, they're trying to incubate him to put on the ventilator, it is not working," she told the news team in an interview.

Three weeks after the story about little Nathaniel's condition was published, things took a turn for the better when, according to Redway, doctors from BHC and Cornwall Regional Hospital travelled to the St Ann's Bay Hospital. They worked together and did both surgeries. After the surgeries, Nathaniel required continuous care, and before he was discharged his parents had to get four different pieces of medical equipment, including a suction machine at home, as well as training, so they could care for him.

After taking roughly four months to acquire the medical equipment, little Nathaniel's family were finally ready to welcome him home. His father, Timothy Robinson, told THE STAR that although his son still needs two more surgeries, one to reconstruct his jaw, and the other to close his cleft palate, he is doing well.

"It feels great to have him home, and although we have some little challenges here and there, he is doing great," Robinson said.

"I was very excited to take him home. From them tell me he was going home I started to pack ... mi all start pack up him things from the hospital like the week before," added the joyful father, with much laughter.

The elated father was also full of gratitude to the staff at the St Ann's Bay Regional Hospital, noting that they took exceptional care of his son.

"They do a lot, man; mi cah thank them enough, from the day him born till now. They have been good to us. All the porter them, every minute them ask how he is doing...and the nurse and the doctor them love him, them crazy about him," said the now joyful dad.