The Buchman family, Rich and Jen, son Kyle and daughter Emily, has been involved with the March of Dimes since 2008. They walk in March for Babies on Team Tori/Kyle, in honor of their son Kyle and in memory of their daughter Tori. Kyle and Tori were born on Dec. 16, 2007 at 27 weeks gestation at Morristown Medical Center. Everything was going well with the pregnancy until Dec 11 when Jen started contracting and was dilated 2cm. At that point, labor was stopped but 4 days later started up again and an emergency C-section was performed - Kyle was born at 2lbs and 14 inches long and Tori was 1lb 11oz and 12.5 inches long. Kyle came off the ventilator after a few days and needed CPAP to help him breathe for about 2 months, then went to nasal cannula for support and finally on room air by about 3.5 months. He needed therapy to help with jaundice, was given medicine to help him overcome periods of apnea and was watched closely for his weight gain. He had to be given medicine to help close a hole in his heart. His biggest problems were his reflux and feeding from a bottle when the time came to start bottle feeding. He did not take well to the bottle and it was finally decided that in order for Kyle to go home he needed to have a feeding tube surgically put into his stomach for his feedings. The doctors came up with a home feeding schedule, put him on special formula and Zaotac medicine for his reflux and the Buchmans were given a home feeding pump. Finally after 4.5 months of being in the NICU, Kyle went home on May 1, 2008. The feeding tube was taken out when Kyle was one year old. Tori's had more difficulty than Kyle. She was on and off the ventilator and CPAP with oxygen and nitric oxide during her entire 5.5 months of being in the NICU. She had heart and lung defects which made it very difficult to keep her respiratory status normal. It was discovered that instead of having the normal 2 bronchi's supplying her left and right lung, she had a third bronchus on the right side of her trachea. It was difficult when she was on the vent with positioning of the tube in her airway. It was also discovered from her autopsy that instead of having 3 lobes on her right lung, she only had 2 and her left lung was half the size it should have been. She also also diagnosed with a genetic disease called CHARGE syndrome. Each letter stands for an unusual congenital feature of the newborn. It occurs in 1:10,000 babies. Tori had 3 of the congenital abnormalities of the syndrome. She was first diagnosed with atresia of the right nasal passageway, which is a narrowing and smaller nasal airway than normal. This made it very difficult for her to be ventilated and for her to breath on her own through her nose. She then was diagnosed with Coloboma of her right eye. This meant her eye was smaller than normal and had a cataract type haze over the entire eye and they were not sure if she could see out of it. The third abnormality was her PDA of her heart which could not be closed with the medicine, like Kyle had. She had to go to Columbia Presbyterian to have the surgery. On May 30, 2008, Tori lost her fight after 5.5 months of surgeries, fighting to breathe and stay alive. Kyle is now 7 years old and doing great. He is in first grade at the Birchwood School in Rockaway. He loves school and all his friends. He plays soccer, basketball and baseball and loves it. With out the March of Dimes and their research, the Buchmans believe that Kyle may not be with them today and Tori may not have lived the 5.5 months she did. They are now dedicated and thankful to the March of Dimes for all they do with research to help give every baby a chance.