In summary...

Baby Ibrahim became ill on Friday, January 2nd.  On that day, we noticed several bloody diapers and a peculiar rash on his feet, so we took him to the ER at the local childrens hospital. Thinking this might be related to an infection, the doctors drew several blood tests and sent cultures.  On his blood count, Ibrahim had only 2,000 platelets (normal 150,000-300,000) and we were admitted to the ICU for extensive testing and treatment.

In the ICU, Ibrahim received blood and platelet transusions to replenish the blood he was losing, but the platelets remained very low.  The next morning, Saira and I went to the regional blood bank and had our blood tested for antibodies.  The results indicated that Saira's blood contained antibodies against my platelets, and that those antibodies were probably also inside Ibrahim and responsible for attacking his platelets. The working diagnosis was NAIT.

At the blood bank, Saira's platelets were taken and transfused into Ibrahim.  Since Saira's (and Ibrahim's) antibodies were not attacking her platelets, they should be safe in Ibrahim's blood.  That theory did not hold true, and several transfusions of Saira's platelets failed to raise his counts at all.

The next step was to give Ibrahim an immunoglobulin (IVIG), which would bind the anti-platelet antibodies inside his blood and clear them from his circulation, so that platelets would not continue to be destroyed.  Ibrahim received three doses of IVIG over three days, but we did not see any response in his platelet count.  At this point, we requested to be transferred to St Jude Children's Research Hospital for more specialized care.

We arrived at St Jude on Monday, January 5.  After failing IVIG, Ibrahim was started on steroids to suppress his immunity and block the effects of the anti-platelet antibody.  Now, Ibrahim has had over three days of steroids, and continues to receive about 2-3 platelet transfusions a day. By the grace of God, there has not been any further bleeding or bruising that we have noticed, and Ibrahim's hemoglobin has been stable.  We are beginning to see a slight response to the transfusions now, and we are hopeful that the counts will continue to rise each day.

We want to thank everyone for your concern, calls and emails. We're very sorry we have not been able to address everyone individually. We'll keep updates posted on this blog as well as recent platelet counts. Please continue to pray for our baby.