{"id":170,"date":"2011-08-27T19:27:03","date_gmt":"2011-08-27T23:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/budancemarathon\/?page_id=170"},"modified":"2011-08-27T19:30:14","modified_gmt":"2011-08-27T23:30:14","slug":"riley-lesh","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/budancemarathon\/why-we-dance\/meet-our-families\/riley-lesh\/","title":{"rendered":"Riley Lesh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riley Lesh<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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Riley loves doing gymnastics and playing the piano.\u00a0 This is how Riley\u2019s mom tells her Riley story:<\/h3>\n

We found out that we were expecting a week or so after 9\/11.\u00a0 Riley’s due date was June 6 of 2002.\u00a0 On a Tuesday in late February, I was put in the hospital (Indiana University Hospital downtown) because of complications from preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome.\u00a0 On Friday night, the decision was made to deliver via emergency c-section in an attempt to save both our lives.\u00a0 She was born at 1:29 on Saturday, March 2.\u00a0 She was 15 weeks premature and weighed only 1 lb, 10 oz.\u00a0 She was 13″ long. After a brief visit in my recovery room, she was sent via the tunnels to Riley Hospital for Children.<\/h3>\n

The two or three weeks were a constant fight.\u00a0 She was not able to breathe on her own so she was intubated.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She had a surgery to close a duct in her heart.\u00a0 She had hundreds of x-rays, sometimes on the hour, and blood tests so often that she still has scars on her feet.\u00a0 There were many times that we feared saying goodbye, knowing it could be our last.<\/h3>\n

Eventually, she started getting stronger.\u00a0 She spent 90 days total in the NICU.\u00a0 She came home on oxygen and a feeding tube, which were both stopped within a couple of weeks.\u00a0 We continued to visit Riley on an outpatient basis, daily at first, then eventually weekly and monthly. Finally, at 18 months, she graduated.\u00a0 Today, she is 9 years old.\u00a0 She loves school, reading and gymnastics.<\/h3>\n