STUDENT SPOTLIGHT:
Jonas Steinmetz
By: Sonya Steinmetz
Jonas was born on July 16, 2011.
After a remarkably easy pregnan-
cy, a complicated delivery became
the first of many battles ahead of
us. After eighteen hours of labor,
and no progress to show for it, the
doctors decided to induce me. The
amniotic sac was full of meconi-
um, and they needed to get Jonas
out quickly. We were rushed to an
operating room for an emergency
C-section. I remember the nurses
bringing Jonas over to me for a
brief second, and thinking
something is not right with his
4 | THE BEACON
eyes. Looking back, knowing what
I know now, he was having a
seizure.
Jonas spent three weeks in the
NICU at Hillcrest. Initially, they
were concerned he had inhaled
meconium, but he was constantly
inconsolable so they kept running
tests. Although the doctors in the
NICU had learned the results of
Jonas’s genetic screens, they sent
us home without passing on the
information. I can only guess that
the thought behind keeping those
results from me was that we might
have bonded better if I didn’t know.
We struggled. Everything upset Jonas.
Turning on a light, the creak of the
floor (no matter how softly), the vibra-
tion of trash trucks on the street…
everything made him scream. He
didn’t eat or sleep well. I’m not sure if
I slept during those first three months
either. The NICU had sent us home
with a list of doctors’ names, appoint-
ment dates and times. Jonas was
three months old when we went to the
appointment that would dramatically
alter our lives.
After learning that Jonas had Angel-
man Syndrome and that he would
probably never breast feed well we