The sun is finally coming up for a local family who has spent most of the last year battling nearly insurmountable odds.
It began with the unexpected news that Rita and Greg Robinson were expecting triplets and became more complicated as health issues for Rita and the premature babies stacked up.
Zamen had acid reflux and a cyst on his brain that made him incapable of ever feeling full. Zamyah had underdeveloped lungs and a hole in her heart. Niren had two holes in his heart, an extremely narrow tube leading to his heart and far too low oxygen levels in his blood.
By the time the triplets were 4 months old, the family was out of options and exhausted. That’s when Rita’s mother reached out for help and a community stepped in.
“(We’re) tired, but a lot better,” Rita said recently as she cuddled a wide-eyed Zamyah. “It’s always somebody awake. You can get three sleeping, but you can never get four.”
Greg laughed in agreement as he held a snoozing Niren and glanced at Zamen, who was sleeping on the couch beside Rita.
Their 2-year-old, Niyah, flitted from person to person and didn’t seem in the slightest bit interested in a nap.
The light-hearted moment was impossible to imagine in the spring when the Robinsons headed to Orlando so Niren could get life-saving heart surgery.
Doctors said the surgery would likely take six to eight hours, but it ended up taking nine. When he finally came out of the operating room, tubes were everywhere — his hands, feet, legs and stomach.
It was heartbreaking for the parents.
“You couldn’t lift him,” Rita said. “It’s miserable just standing there.”
Shortly after the surgery, an infection developed that reopened the stitches on one of the holes. He likely will have to have surgery again, but for now doctors are stabilizing the problem with six medications.
His long-term health is unknown, Greg said.
“They can’t make him normal, but they can do the best they can,” he said.
While he was in the hospital, Niren’s long-term eating issues only intensified, and doctors said they wanted to insert a feeding tube into his stomach.
Greg balked at the suggestion and the long-term consequences of the decision.
“I said I understand it’s your job to find out why he’s not eating, but I’m willing to help you as a parent,” Greg said. It took a lot of time and patience, but eventually he got his son eating again from a bottle. That turned out to be the ticket home, and for the first time an opportunity to develop some semblance of a routine.
Greg gets up early with the triplets and Niyah, and Rita takes the nightshift. They share the afternoons.
The triplets — Niren, Zamen and Zamyah — are 8 months old now.
Zamyah finally has enough hair on the top of her head for a tiny bow, Zamen can roll over on his own and Niren is free from the wires that monitored his oxygen levels since birth.
Greg has lost his job, but is in the final stages of applying for unemployment. He’s hopeful he’ll find a new job soon.
Rita is fully recovered from her surgeries and working hard to juggle the demands of her children and keeping an organized home.
Whatever it is God has got in store for us, it’s going to work out,” Rita said. “We’ll definitely be just fine.”