Two moms are leaping into this Mother’s Day with new leases on life after overcoming major medical issues that put their babies at risk.
One mom is celebrating the holiday with a brand new kidney — but has refused to slow down, telling The Post the scar and staples along her stomach remind her of the strength she harnessed to save both her life and her son’s.
Fatimah Sheperd, a veteran FDNY dispatcher, had suffered through daily dialysis treatments and a 5-month hospital stay in 2024 to deliver little Oakari and fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a mother.
“I always knew I would be a great mom,” Sheperd, 41, told The Post.
“I always wanted to wake up in the morning and make breakfast and make pancakes. These are the things that I always wanted to do. This is something that I could do, and it’s something that was really, really important to me.”
Sheperd, then 39, had all but given up on the idea of motherhood in the months before she saw the shocking two blue lines on an at-home test.
She had already been living with lupus for nearly two decades, had lost two twins in a devastating miscarriage and was recently diagnosed with kidney disease.
The Brooklynite’s delicate health state almost immideately put her pregnancy into “high-risk” category — and doctors ordered her to move into the hospital at just 14 weeks with 3-hour dialysis sessions six days per week.
But Sheperd was determined to look on the bright side, saying the Northwell team made her feel like she was “living at a hotel” and allowed her to look at Oakari on the sonogram whenever she asked.
Oakari was born on July 5, 2023 happy and healthy and without health complications, but the arduous pregnancy left Sheperd with lingering complications that kept her on dialysis three times per week.
She was then offered a new lease on life on April 19 of this year, when she was finally called up on the transplant list and rushed into surgery.
The kidney came just in time for Mother’s Day, which Sheperd said will be “extra special” this year.
“These last two weeks of healing showed me how strong of a mom I am and that I’m the mom that I knew I was meant to be,” said Sheperd.
“No matter how tired I am, I get up, I go to my appointments, I dress Oakari, we do what we have to do. I make his breakfast. I haven’t missed a beat. He doesn’t miss out on anything.”
In New Jersey, Katie Moser is celebrating a milestone Mother’s Day as a mom of two after her 6-month-old fought tooth and nail to survive a near-fatal congenital defect.
Little Ryan had been diagnosed while still in the womb with Meckel’s diverticulum, where a little pouch grows on the wall of the small intestine and affects just 2% of the population — but doctors were unable to tell how serious his case was until after he was born.
He wasn’t breathing upon his November birth, with his intestine twisted in a knot so severe that the blood flow was cut off, and was rushed into emergency surgery at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center NICU.
“That was probably the toughest part. Before they took him to the NICU, I got to take a quick look at him and give them a quick kiss. But then they took him … It was scary,” Moser said.
The tiny fighter miraculously made it through the excruciating four-hour surgery, but the journey was just the beginning — Ryan’s delicate condition meant he needed to spend up to half a year in the NICU, split from his family by the window glass.
Ryan’s survival was something of a mirancle with the hospital’s Pediatric Surgery Chief, Mark Kayton, telling The Post that many babies would have succumbed well before the end of pregnancy, and Ryan might have fallen to the same fate if he hadn’t arrived 24 days early.
“Ryan has given us this moment. Now, we’ve got to meet the moment with our skills and our energy,” said Dr. Kayton of the intense surgery.
Ryan proved to be a warrior and was given the green light to go home on Dec. 27 — after just two months in the hospital.
Despite his treacherous start to life, Ryan is expected to “live a normal life” — but his brush with death has left a lasting impression on the Mosers.
This Sunday, Moser plans to spend a simple day at home with her husband, Ryan and her eldest, Kyle, 3.
“This Mother’s Day is going to be special. I cherish every moment that I have at home with him and every holiday,” said Moser.
“Knowing everything that he went through and that he might not have made it is just something that I appreciate every day. We love watching him grow. He’s just such a happy baby.”
