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Prayers kept ‘miracle baby’ alive, family says
Even the doctors at Mission Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit termed Layla’s recovery a “miracle.”
 “During this time countless people and churches were praying for her,” said Layla’s grandmother Jayne Gillett of Webster. “We had a prayer chain that stretched across 20 states. The doctors said there was no way it could have happened except for being a miracle,” she said.
Jayne was talking about Layla’s battle to survive after blood flow to her intestines shut down as a result of a virus.
“Her intestines were nearly dead,” said Layla’s mom, Cullowhee Valley first-grade teacher Tabatha Gillett.
Shortly before Christmas Tabatha and her husband Josh got news no parent wants to hear – they were told their baby, just 2 months old, had only a 5 percent chance of surviving to see the new year.
“We spent Christmas mourning, but on New Year’s, things picked up,” Jayne said.
“The intestinal perforations sealed back,” Tabatha said. “The doctor said it was a miracle.”
Tabatha joins her mother-in-law in crediting prayer with helping her baby live long enough to go home.
“We had the prayers of every church in town,” she said. “I know that’s what did it.”
Born Oct. 18, Tabatha spent her first six months at Mission. Josh and Tabatha took her home for the first time on April 20. She still has a feeding tube, and nurses and therapists visit every day, but developmentally she’s right where she’s supposed to be, Tabatha says.
The feeding tube will stay until Layla is ready for solid food and to drink from a cup, Tabatha said, adding that Layla will probably always have gastrointestinal problems.
Smokey Mountain Elementary School teacher Vangie Stephens first brought us word of Layla and her homecoming. Vangie, who helped with a successful frybread fund-raiser for the young family, wanted to be sure that everyone who had been touched by Layla’s story and contributed their prayers knew about Layla’s happy outcome.
One of Tabatha’s fellow teachers at Cullowhee Valley, Marcia Johnson, told of the love and support – and prayers – that teachers and school personnel across Jackson County had showered on Layla and Tabatha.
“We knew there would be problems with the baby,” Marcia said. “We thought Tabatha might be out of work until Christmas, so we went ahead with the fund-raiser in late August or early September.”
According to Tabatha, the birth defect Layla had is called gastrochisis, and what it means is that the baby’s abdomen had a hole that never closed, meaning that her intestines were on the outside of her body. The condition was diagnosed by an ultrasound when Tabatha was 20 weeks pregnant.
Layla’s first surgery came when she was just 20 minutes old.
“They just shoved her intestines back in and sewed her up,” Tabatha said. “For some children, that’s all they need.”
Initially, Layla wasn’t one of the lucky ones. She developed NEC, a virus that nearly blocked her intestines, leading to the doctors’ gloomy Christmas forecast.
Hundreds of thousands of prayers later, Layla was on the mend.
Tabatha said she didn’t let herself hope that she would actually be able to take her baby home until February, after the last of her three surgeries.
“It was when the doctors and nurses could talk to me without crying – that’s when I started to believe,” Tabatha said.
According to Marcia, local educators delivered more than prayers; they donated enough leave days and sick days to keep Tabatha – a new teacher on the payroll to make sure she didn’t lose her insurance.
“So many teachers from all over the county donated annual leave that she was able to stay on through February,” Marcia said.
A second request yielded more days and kept Tabatha on the payroll through April.
“We just want to thank everybody,” Jayne said.
Gastrochisis, the condition Layla was born with, is more prevalent in Western North Carolina that in any other region, Tabatha said.
“There were always two or three other babies there with the same thing,” she said. “They’re actually doing a study on it to see if they can find out more about why it’s more common in this area.”
Tabatha describes the past six months as “the worst and the best – a roller-coaster ride every day.”
Jayne is convinced that her “miracle baby” was placed here for a purpose.
“God has sent her here to be with us for a very special reason we may not yet realize,” Jayne said. “Layla has touched a lot of lives.”
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