When Allanah was pregnant with her daughter, Milanah, she had already imagined the life ahead.
The nursery was painted. A golden crib was waiting. Her baby’s name had been chosen. Little clothes had been embroidered and put away with care. Everybody
was excited…
Then, at her anatomy scan, Allanah learned that something was wrong.
Within days, she was admitted to the hospital. At 25 weeks pregnant, she faced an emergency C-section and the possibility that her tiny daughter might not survive. Doctors prepared her for the worst. She was told Milanah might never walk, talk or feed herself.
“I was honestly devastated and shocked,” Allanah says. “This was not how I thought it would go for everybody.”
Milanah was born weighing just 500 grams with the tubes, the hat and the diaper at birth. About 430-467 grams without.
She has continued to face ongoing respiratory challenges that have led to approximately 18 bouts of pneumonia since leaving the NICU, causing additional lung damage and contributing to pulmonary edema and enlargement of the right side of her heart.
Despite years of complex medical care, hospitalizations, specialist appointments, and therapies, Milanah continues to defy expectations with remarkable resilience.
Before she arrived, Allanah had been told to expect silence. Instead, her daughter cried.
“It was amazing,” Allanah remembers. “They told me it would be completely silent. Then she cried.”
That cry was the beginning of a long and difficult journey.
Milanah was rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital, where she would spend months fighting to grow stronger. During COVID, Allanah often had to face uncertainty alone. She could have only one support person in the hospital, and there were long stretches when it was just her, her thoughts, and the tiny baby in front of her.
She remembers sitting beside Milanah’s bed, talking to her, reading to her and singing to her. She tried to find moments of normal life in a situation that felt anything but normal.
At the time, Children’s Hospital had only two jet ventilators. Thanks to a donor’s recent support, another had arrived just in time.
“When my daughter needed it, thankfully it was available,” Allanah says. “I was told she may have had to wait. If it were not available at that time, maybe I would not have my daughter.”
That donor-funded machine helped Milanah keep fighting.
Eventually, after a long 132-day NICU stay, Allanah was able to bring her daughter home. Milanah came home on oxygen, and Allanah became the kind of parent who learned everything she could. She asked questions. She listened closely. She became her daughter’s strongest advocate.
Five years later, Milanah is finishing senior kindergarten.
She sings. She twirls. She dances. She asks questions about everything. She makes friends everywhere she goes and is known for her kindness, curiosity, and bright spirit.
“She is literally the happiest child,” Allanah says. “She is always smiling. She is so friendly.”
To someone meeting Milanah today, she may look like any other energetic five-year-old.
But Allanah knows there is another side to their story.
In Milanah’s bedroom closet, there is still an oxygen concentrator, an oxygen saturation monitor, and a feeding pump. Milanah has a G tube (for nutrition) and continues to face ongoing health challenges as she grows. The equipment is tucked away, ready if it is ever needed again.
“We are not fully out of the woods yet,” Allanah says. “When you look at her, you just see a normal little girl. You would have no idea that we still live in that ready-to-go place.”
For Allanah, the closet is a quiet reminder of everything Milanah has endured and how quickly life can change.
Milanah and her mother Allanah. It is also a reminder of why Children’s Hospital matters so much.
Over the years, Milanah has returned for care beyond the NICU, including into a child’s life.
several long hospital stays for pneumonia. Yet Allanah says the hospital has become a place of comfort for her daughter. Nurses who are not even assigned to Milanah recognize her name on the board and come by to say hello. Milanah knows that at Children’s Hospital there will be stickers, smiles, and people who care. She is safe there.
“For some people, the hospital is somewhere you go only once in a while,” Allanah says. “For others, it is like a second home.”
Today, Allanah looks at her daughter and feels overwhelming gratitude.
“I am so thankful for the nurses, doctors, and everyone who makes up that place,” she says. “They are a huge part of why my child is doing so well.” Allanah added, “I feel extreme gratitude and thankfulness that donors are making a difference in these kids’ lives. They are the reason that some of these kids are really living improved lives right now.”
Because when Milanah needed a jet ventilator, it was there.
Because when a tiny baby needed every possible chance, Children’s Hospital had the specialized equipment and skilled care team ready to help.
Because donor support did not simply purchase a machine.
It helped save a little girl’s life.
Your gift helps ensure that the smallest, sickest, and most vulnerable children have access to the specialized equipment and care they need when every breath, ounce, and second matters.
