18 years a survivor
BY ROYAL HOPPER III
TIMES CORRESPONDENT | Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Vernon Parr celebrated his 18th birthday this year at the same place where his life began -- and among the people who made the 18 candles on his birthday cake possible.
Vernon Parr and his mother chose to celebrate the special day recently at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Methodist Hospitals in Gary.
His mother, Stephanie Parr, said the day her son was born is etched in her memory forever.
"He was too small for the premature diapers, so they put a surgical mask on him," Stephanie Parr said as she greeted birthday party guests.
Vernon Parr himself was stoic as his mother passed around pictures of his birth among the people who helped the boy through the first difficult day of his life.
It was people like registered nurses Imelda Villarillo, Janet Ellis and the other staff of the hospital neonatal care unit on duty that day in March 1989 who made the birthday possible. Stephanie Parr said it seemed fitting they should be able to celebrate the accomplishment.
"He weighed 3.1 pounds," Villarillo said recalling the small baby who seldom cried.
The day Vernon Parr was born started quietly enough with an ultrasound at the office of his mother's doctor. But when the doctor read the scan, he decided something wasn't quite right. Later that day, Vernon Parr was born by Caesarean section.
Registered nurses Ellen Maravilla and Bernadette Taylor were there that day, and so was Dr. Dizon Edgar. They all shared birthday cake Friday in remembrance.
Vernon Parr, a junior at Roosevelt High in Gary, plans on going to Indiana University and majoring in sports management.
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