Baby who weighed 14 ounces improving

by Ellen Crawford/The Forum

If Hope Levos keeps gaining weight, she could be going home in little more than a week, her doctor says.

She weighed a mere 14 ounces and was nearly 15 weeks premature when she was born the day before Thanksgiving. She's been at Fargo's Dakota Heartland Hospital on South University since was born.

"She's about 3 1/2 pounds now, and I expect her to go home before Easter," Dr. Ravi Agarwal, director of neonatology at Dakota Heartland.

Agarwal wants her to weigh at least 4 pounds 6 ounces before she leaves the hospital.

He estimates she may be ready to head home about March 24 if she continues growing approximately an ounce a day.

"She's doing extremely well," he says.

Hope is Brenda and Tom Levos' first child. The rural Leonard, N.D., couple had been trying to have a baby for about 1 1/2 years when Brenda became pregnant.

The early part of her pregnancy was uneventful, then she got a sharp pain in her abdomen two days before Thanksgiving. Her doctor discovered that her blood pressure was dangerously high and her liver was starting to shut down. She would have to have a cesarean section, the doctor said.

Hope weighed only 1 1/2 ounces more than Trent Petrie, the Dilworth boy who was the smallest know infant to survive premature birth. Trent is 11 now.

Agarwal says Hope doesn't have problems with her sight, bleeding in her head or the major respiratory troubles that blague many premature babies and she is breathing on her own.

Hope's parents take turns spending time with her every day. They've become experts at reading the equipment that's monitoring her heartbeat and other vital signs.

"They are very good parents," Agarwal says.

The Levoses say they'd like to have more children despite the worry that's come with the first one.

"It's got to get better," Tom says.