On Sept. 18, 2021, Amillianna Ramirez-Johnson was born at Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s hospital in Milwaukee. She weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces, had a halo of fuzzy, dark curls, 10 fingers, 10 toes and a healthy heart.
But her weak cry and the pale-blue tint to her skin signaled her breathing was stressed. The umbilical cord was “stained green,” according to medical records.
The staining was from meconium, a thick, tar-like substance that when passed by a newborn — creating the baby’s first dirty diaper — is a sign of good health. But when a fetus is stressed, meconium is released too soon, creating a toxic mix of amniotic fluid and waste that is inhaled prior to birth.
Amillianna had inhaled the sticky substance either in utero or while traveling through the birth canal. It entered her airways and settled in her lungs.
An hour after she was born, Amillianna was transferred to Room 624 in the neonatal intensive care unit. Before she and her parents were separated, a nurse held Amillianna close to her mother Karen Ramirez’s cheek, the newborn’s lips resting there for a quick couple of seconds.