News

April 28, 2008

Walkers in park rejoice in baby’s health

Family of illnesses survivor Tommy Kraintz, 2, is “ambassador” for March of Dimes fundraiser.

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
Steve Mocarsky on Facebook   |   @TLSteveMocarsky on Twitter

WILKES-BARRE – After returning to Kirby Park with his parents, nearly 50 family members and friends and a few hundred other people after a three-mile walk, a smiling and energetic Tommy Kraintz was ready to party Sunday.

After all, he and his loved ones had every reason to celebrate after completing the March of Dimes 2008 Walk for Babies.

When Tommy was born on Feb. 21, 2006, he was 12 weeks premature, weighed 2 pounds, 1 ounce and was 15� inches long. Survival odds were against him.

But after suffering through pneumonia, a collapsed lung, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a heart defect, jaundice, colitis, two staph infections, asthma, four blood transfusions and two platelet transfusions during a 70-day stay in the Lehigh Valley Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Tommy was sent home with his parents on their second wedding anniversary.

“He’s good now, excellent. You wouldn’t know he had problems when he was born,” Tommy’s dad, Josh Kraintz, of Hanover Township, said on Sunday.

“He’ll be completely fine. It’s just a miracle,” Tommy’s mother, Cindy Kraintz, added. “He went from being the sickest baby in the NICU to the healthiest around.”

Tommy’s success story is one that can give hope to the families of the half million babies born prematurely every year in the United States, including nearly 17,000 in Pennsylvania. That’s about one in every eight births, and for African-Americans, about one in every six births.

“For half of these births, we have no idea why it happens,” said Dolores Smith, director of programming services and public affairs for the March of Dimes.

The national nonprofit, based in White Plains, N.Y., has been funding research into childhood and infant diseases since 1938, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt encouraged people to mail dimes to the White House to fund research in response to a polio epidemic, Smith said.

“We started research that led to the polio vaccine. Then (in 1958), we began to look at (the prevention of) birth defects. There are over 6,000 known birth defects, two-thirds of which we have no idea why they happen. There is just under $89 million invested in research,” Smith said.

During the last five decades, scientists funded by March of Dimes grants – including several Nobel Prize winners – made strides in finding causes of and treatments for birth defects.

In 2003, the organization launched its National Prematurity Campaign to stem premature birth.

Cindy and Josh Kraintz said they were grateful for the emotional support the March of Dimes provided during their difficult time. The organization also helps families who can’t afford treatment for their newborns, Cindy said.

Smith said it’s not unusual for premature babies to be in neonatal intensive care 50 to 100 days.

The Kraintzes’ appreciation led them to agree to be this year’s “ambassador family” for the annual March of Dimes walk, which up to this year, had been called “WalkAmerica.”

The nearly 50 members of “Team Thomas” raised $1,500, Cindy said. “We want to get people out there and involved, make people aware of the March of Dimes and the work they do.”

Amanda Becker, East Central Pennsylvania March of Dimes senior community director, estimated 400 people participated in this year’s walk. The fundraisers exceeded this year’s $75,000 goal by more than $1,000, she said.

A Walk for Babies at Nay Aug Park in Scranton on Saturday raised $58,000, exceeding a goal of $53,000, she said.

Another major goal for the March of Dimes in Pennsylvania is seeing state House Bill 883 passed by the Senate.

The bill would mandate that all hospitals in Pennsylvania perform a heel-prick blood test for 28 metabolic diseases right after birth.

Pennsylvania is one of only four states that does not require the tests for newborns.

“All 28 have a dietary treatment. To fail to do it leaves a child at risk for irreparable brain damage,” Smith said.

But if certain birth defects are caught soon enough, they can be treated with special diets and the children can grow up to be productive adults rather than wards of the state, Smith said.

The state House of Representatives unanimously passed the bill in July; the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee passed it in March. The bill is before the state Appropriations Committee.

Smith urged the public to call or write to their senators in support of the bill.

SPEAK OUT

To help get House Bill 883 passed in the state Senate, call or write to your senator. Click the link above for the state legislature Web site where you can search for your senator by ZIP code and send him or her an e-mail.

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 459-2005.

Tweet	Follow @TLnews