Ocean Township Family Named March of Dimes Jersey Shore Ambassadors

The New Jersey Chapter of the March of Dimes is proud to announce the Russomanno family of Ocean Township, NJ as the 2015 Jersey Shore March for Babies Ambassadors.

On Sunday, May 3rd, hundreds from the Jersey Shore will gather for March for Babies on the Asbury Park Boardwalk to benefit the March of Dimes. Leading the festivities will be the event’s Ambassadors - Courtney and Victor Russomanno and their children Joey, Elizabeth and Victoria. They will share the story of Victoria’s premature birth, her incredible story of survival, and thank walkers for their commitment to the March of Dimes mission to give all babies a healthy start.

Victoria Dane Russomanno was born on January 13, 2014 at 25 weeks gestation at Monmouth Medical Center. She weighed only 1lb 10oz and her family was told she may not make it through the night. Not only did she make it, she was nick-named “Wild Woman” for how spunky and active she was in her isolette. Victoria made leaps and bounds over the next few weeks and even pulled out her ventilator tube at 3 weeks old (28 weeks adjusted). She stayed on a CPAP machine, helping her breathe, for a few more weeks and was breathing on her own by the middle of March. Then things changed.

Victoria developed meningitis and her parents were told a head ultrasound showed a grade 4 and a grade 3 brain bleed. After a neurosurgeon performed a cerebral spinal fluid test and an MRI, it was determined she had a staph infection, not a brain bleed, that had abscessed in her brain and she needed surgery immediately.

The next day she was transferred to St. Barnabas Hospital and had her first brain surgery on March 28. After a week, Victoria came back to Monmouth Medical Center and recovered quickly. She came back once again to breathing on her own and living in an open crib.

Since the initial surgery, Victoria developed hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and was unable to drain fluid from her brain. During her 134 day stay in the NICU, Victoria had two more brain surgeries and two broviac placements.

Victoria was able to come home on May 27, 2014 to join her older brother Joey and older sister Elizabeth. Her parents Courtney and Victor are thrilled to have her home and are thankful for all that family, friends, hospitals and organizations such as the March of Dimes have done to make this possible.

“We are so grateful to be involved with an organization as wonderful as the March of Dimes. We are incredibly honored to have been chosen as the Ambassador Family and look forward to sharing Victoria’s story in our efforts to raise awareness and funds for such an important cause,” said Courtney.

Participants can meet the Russomannos at the Asbury Park Boardwalk on Sunday, May 3rd. Registration begins at 10:00 a.m. with the walk kicking off at 11:00 a.m. For more information, visit marchforbabies.org.

The 2015 March for Babies is sponsored nationally by the March of Dimes number one corporate supporter Kmart, and top sponsors Famous Footwear, Macy’s, Cigna, United Airlines and Mission Pharmacal and locally by PSEG, UnitedHealthcare, Virtua, Comcast NBCUniversal, New Jersey Family, and New Jersey Monthly.