Family's best gift: the health of a child

The series of medical emergencies that have overtaken the Morris family over the past 16 months has been unending.

Ever since their son, Michael, was born prematurely with heart, kidney and spinal abnormalities, Mike and Melissa Morris have been in and out of hospitals nearly every other week.

They name the months by the procedures Michael has undergone. Last December, there was an operation to correct a tethered spinal cord. January, a stent was inserted in one of his arteries. March was pneumonia. July, open heart surgery.

Today, as the Morrises celebrate Christmas in the company of Melissa's family, Michael will be the center of attention -- his cherubic round face, blue eyes and ear-to-ear grin captivating everyone. Now on the verge of walking, he is fast catching up on all the skills 16-month-old babies can master.

Even through the roughest times, however, the Morrises have found reasons to be grateful. God, they believe, was preparing them for every setback.

Had Mike stayed in his old network engineering job with its limited health coverage, the family would have incurred disastrous medical costs.

Had Melissa's parents not moved down to North Carolina, there would have been no one to look after Megan, the Morris' 4-year-old daughter.

Had they not joined First United Methodist Church in Cary, they would never have grown to rely on their faith and on the prayers and good wishes of a supporting community.

It's not that the Morrises wanted this ordeal, they said. But like the birth of Jesus in, of all places, a cow stall, the Morrises know God can bring good out of any situation.

"A lot of the doctors and nurses thought he'd never leave the hospital," Melissa said. "Obviously, God has a plan for him because he shouldn't be here."

For this family, that's the biggest gift of all.

A jolting sight

When Melissa saw her son after his first surgery, she passed out.

Born by Caesarean section five weeks early, Michael was whisked to the pediatric intensive care unit at Duke Hospital in Durham immediately after his birth. There, the 4.5-pound baby was resuscitated, put on oxygen and fed through a tube in his nose.

The Morrises knew from prior ultrasound tests that Michael had a congenital heart defect that would require surgery. Where most people have two main blood vessels leaving the heart -- the aorta, which carries blood to the body, and the pulmonary artery, which carries blood to the lungs -- Michael had one. A few days after his birth, he began suffering from an irregular heartbeat. Although doctors had hoped to postpone surgery until he gained some weight, that was no longer an option.

When he was wheeled out of surgery, Melissa was shocked at the sight of her fragile preemie attached to monitors, with tubes and tape covering his body.

"I couldn't even get close to him," said Melissa, who still grows teary talking about it.

During the surgery, a vessel was inserted to correct his abnormality. But several hours after the surgery, he went into heart failure. His heart was too weak to pump blood. Doctors attached him to a heart-lung bypass machine. A few days later, after they successfully pulled him off the machine, he developed an infection.

Waiting and praying

The Morrises could only wait and pray.

Finally, 85 days after his birth, Michael came home for the first time. It would not be for long. An entire year of medical emergencies was just dawning.

As the Morrises look back at the past year, the worst moments were the dozen or so 5 a.m. phone calls from Duke Hospital -- the ones in which the nurses said, "You'd better come. We don't think he's going to make it."