Miracle Kids

Landon

Landon Ray Orsag weighed just 30 ounces when he was born 14 weeks early at College Station Medical Center. Because he was born prematurely, his tiny lungs were not developed enough to breathe without assistance and he quickly developed pulmonary interstitial emphysema (PIE), a life-threatening condition.

Landon was immediately transferred to The McLane Company neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Scott & White in Temple, one of a few facilities that have a special high-frequency ventilator to help severely premature infants breathe. His mother, Holly Orsag, chose the NICU at Scott & White, which ranks among the top 3 percent in the world based on survival rates of newborns.

The Scott & White neonatal transport team arrived to pick up Landon by helicopter, equipped with a new airborne incubator, or isolette, a gift from McLane Company, Inc. to the Children’s Miracle Network at Scott & White. The new isolette provides a high-tech environment that maintains optimal temperature and humidity and uses a high-frequency ventilator to provide respiration assistance for very premature infants.

Pumping air into the delicate lungs of a newborn at a rate of up to 900 gentle puffs per minute, high-frequency ventilators are crucial to maintaining safe and adequate ventilation in babies born with immature lungs. The new isolette enabled the transport team to immediately place Landon on the high-frequency ventilator, giving lifesaving treatment during the flight back to Temple.

Landon spent three months in the NICU, two weeks of that time on the high-frequency ventilator.

Now breathing well on his own and weighing just over five pounds, this lucky little boy has a fighting chance for a healthy life; thanks to a highly skilled transport team armed with the most advanced medical equipment available.

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