Kelly Frey's Thanksgiving MiracleBaby Bennett Home For HolidaysPOSTED: 8:47 am EST November 23,
2009 PITTSBURGH -- Thanksgiving has come a little early for WTAE Channel 4 Action News anchor Kelly Frey and her husband, Jason.After a complicated and difficult pregnancy, Frey gave birth to the couple's first child in September -- a baby boy named Bennett.Many viewers have been calling and e-mailing for information about Bennett and his mom. Mike Clark, who anchors WTAE Channel 4 Action News This Morning with Frey, checked in on the family at home and met their Thanksgiving miracle.Eight-week-old Bennett Ryan was wide awake when Frey picked him up out of his crib for Clark, who said it felt like he'd already had a chance to meet the little guy."Say, 'Who is that man? Is that Mike?' Did you hear Mike?' For a lot of months, you heard Mike for many, many months, didn't you?" Frey cooed as she gazed down at her new son. Baby Photos - See Bennett With His Parents
Video -  Watch Mike Clark's ReportYour Comments - Please share your feedback in the "Add your comment" box at the bottom of this story page. Clark said that at just 2 months old, Bennett is a tough little guy and the whole family is enjoying the strong grip of his tiny fingers, especially since he wasn't supposed to be able to hold on at all.On Aug. 26, Frey shared with viewers the news of her pregnancy and the news that things weren't going well."Tuesday, April 21, was a tough day, roughly 10 o'clock in the morning -- a time we will never forget, the time we first got our terminal diagnosis. That was hard, very hard. It takes us right back," Frey said.Doctors diagnosed their son with holoprosencephaly, a severe malformation of the brain.Kelly and Jason were prepared for the worst, since many of the babies diagnosed with HPE are stillborn or die shortly after birth."Here we are, we went through that whole time in the pregnancy, all those months just watching him get bigger on the ultrasound watching him in my tummy. Little hands, little feet, little heartbeat. It was always hard. But it was always joyous, too. But when he came out on Sept. 22, whew!" Frey said.Jason Luhn, Kelly's husband, said they were prepared for an entire range of possibilities, from the best case to the worst."If this happens, you're not going to see Bennett. If this happens, you will see Bennett. All these things are racing through your mind while the C-section is going on. There was no preparation for that exact second where she just hoisted him over the blanket. There's this child looking down at us. We went like... just speechless," he said.On delivery day, Bennett beat the odds. Not only was he breathing on his own, he was crying, screaming, letting people know he was alive."And, of course, the room is silent. We don't expect it first of all. Then he's moving every extremity and this of course is unbelievable. And usually we prepared that if his color was blue we'd take him right to the neonatologist. But because he was moving and screaming after I cut the chord, I held the baby up like one of those African stories, so that they could see him. Because we were all excited, you know, this is it! Immediately the whole room was so excited," said Dr, Margaret Pettigrew, who delivered Bennett."I was so overwhelmed I was almost scared to touch him at first. Not in disbelief, but somewhat in disbelief because here is this child that we lived with the knowledge for all those months, seven months that he was going to die. And here he was bundled up and he was alive," said Frey.And after seven weeks in the hospital, including three serious surgeries, Bennett is now home with mom and dad."His brain had been compressed like a sponge -- the cortex, the thinking part, because of all the fluid. And over the last seven weeks, with the scan they have done, they've actually seen the cortex area of his brain expand… We truly believe that's why you can see him like this sitting here, cooing, eating, he's not on a ventilator. He's not on a feeding tube," Frey said. "We've heard different prognoses and this and that. But then again, even the doctors are saying, 'We simply don't know to a certain degree of what he's going to be able to do, because he's already done what he shouldn't be doing."Both Jason and Kelly said they are very grateful to not only the nurses and doctors at UPMC Mercy and Children's hospitals and at The Children's Home, but also to all of the viewers who have wished them well on this journey."The thought of waking up on Thanksgiving morning and having him in our household is just unbelievable. I mean, we give thanks every day. Every day is Thanksgiving in our household because he's here," Frey said.Not long before Monday's 5 p.m. newscast, Frey told Clark by phone that Bennett was back at Children's Hospital for more tests because he didn't feel well over the weekend. She hopes to get him out quickly and back home before Thanksgiving.
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