Unborn baby casino veteran

Bob Shemeligian

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

For awhile, it looked as though Donna Matosko's unborn baby wouldn't make it.

But the 30-year-old woman from Stratford, Conn., and her 7-month-old unborn child are doing much better today, thanks to a quick referral to a local hospital by security guards at Bally's.

Matosko has already come up with a name for her little girl: Balli Noelle.

"I wanted to name her after the hotel, and I chose the middle name because she's expected around Christmas," Matosko said in her room at Columbia Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where she has been recuperating since the early morning hours of Oct. 1, when she started developing serious complications.

At the time, Matosko was playing roulette at Bally's, where she had been staying.

"I started bleeding very badly," Matosko said. "The hotel security guards called Mercy Ambulance, and this being my first visit to Las Vegas, I didn't know where to go, so they told me to go to Sunrise. They said the hospital has very good prenatal care."

Matosko had suffered a placental abruption -- a sudden breaking away of the placenta from the uterine wall.

But, after two weeks of treatment and recuperation at Sunrise, doctors pronounced Matosko fit enough to fly back to Connecticut on Tuesday.

"I'm very grateful to my perinatologist, Dr. Van Bohman," Matosko said. "If he wasn't so big, I'd fold him up and take him back to Stratford."

Matosko, who manages a Mobil Service Station, arrived in Las Vegas in late September to attend the Mobil World '96 convention at the Sands Expo Center.

Her husband, Paul, assistant manager of the service station, agreed to stay home with the couple's two children: Briana, 2, and 1-year-old Paul Jr.

Because Matosko was six months pregnant, and would be traveling alone on her first trip to Las Vegas, her husband was understandably worried.

"But my doctor gave me the OK, so I went," Matosko said.

Today, Matosko said she's happy she stayed at Bally's.

And staff members of Bally's, who hand-delivered a gift basket, balloons and a white housecoat to Matosko at her hospital room, said they're very happy with news of her baby's health -- and her baby's name.

"I think Balli is a nice, catchy name, don't you?" asked Gina Cunningham, public relations manager at Bally's.