Jael's Journey
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Jael's Photos and updates
Her name is Jael Madison Dehnart.
She is a warrior, she is strong, she is fighting for her life.
I am setting up this gofundme for my dearest friends, two people who are very special, and some of the most generous people I have ever met. Many of you reading this may already be friends or family to them and know them well, others may have been following this story thru social media or prayer groups, or church groups and have never actually met them in person. So I will give a small summary from my perspective.
Meet Chris and Michelle Dehnart.
Chris is a small business owner working as an appliance repair technician, "Electrotech Appliance and Repair". Together with his wife Michelle, they have worked very hard to learn and build a business. Unfortunately one of the downsides to being such a small business is that you don't have access to paid time off, benefits, company paid insurance or paternity leave.
Up until 2018 school year, Michelle had been staying at home and doing ALL the behind the scenes work for Electrotech. In 2018 she got a job as a teacher working at Oak Grove Christian School and that continued until this past December when she finally had to resign due to impending pregnancy and the desire to be a stay at home mom.
Since their marriage, they have both wanted nothing more than to have a child (or 12) and despite their efforts they have had to sit back and watch as both friends and family have continued to succeed where they had failed. Despite the discouragement, they remained ever hopeful and happy for each member of their family or their friends who had little ones. With that in mind you may begin to understand the sheer joy and excitement that first a positive pregnancy test brought, then the amazement of that first ultrasound! They had a baby girl! She was growing and as she did, so did their excitement!
Then the tests, and the resulting news with only three months left to go, brought sadness, fear, and uncertainty into the pregnancy. The baby was diagnosed with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). This basically means that during prenatal development, her diaphragm did not completely close. The diaphragm is a thin skeletal muscle that is very flexible and separates the chest cavity from the abdomen. The diaphragm is the main muscle of respiration. Contraction of the diaphragm muscle expands the lungs during inspiration when one is breathing air in. We rely heavily on the diaphragm for our respiratory function so that when the diaphragm is impaired, it can compromise our breathing. Now in addition to that being an issue, since there was a hole, her liver and some of her intestines migrated up into her chest cavity. This put additional pressure on the heart and lungs during a time when their development was becoming very crucial. Because doctors are unable to assess whether lungs are fully developed prior to birth, it was unknown if she would be able to breath upon being born and they would be unable to fix that. As a result the doctors told Chris and Michelle that there was a very slim chance that their baby would survive and asked if they wanted to just terminate the pregnancy. They decided to give their baby girl a chance and pressed for numbers, they were told 25% was the likelihood of surviving past birth. After their decision to continue was made, plans were set in motion to help the little girl's odds as much as possible. Chris and Michelle decided to name her Jael, for a woman in the bible who with her deeds ended up winning the war for her country. If you would like a better account please feel free to look it up in the Bible, Judges chapter 4. A c-section was scheduled with a specially prepared team ready to receive the baby, because in the chance she did have functioning lungs, she would still need support to breath due to the continued pressure of the liver and intestines in the area that they don't belong, and potentially immediate hookup to some very specialized machines.
On Jan 3, 2020 at 8:49am Baby Jael Madison Dehnart was born! Weighing 7lb 1 oz and 19 inches long, she quickly insisted that she planned to stay! Over the next few days it was very evident that there was a struggle taking place between Jael's will to stay and her body to give up. With a lot of love from her parents, and a LOT of dedication from a very skilled team of doctors and nurses, her little body started to agree with her wishes. It wasn't quite enough however, and finally she went thru surgery to put her on an ECMO machine. This machine is highly specialized and can have it's own risks because it is a lung and heart bypass machine. It does all the work, it creates a vacuum that draws the blood out of the body into a series of tubes and mini machines that remove carbon dioxide from the blood and add in the pure oxygen and then push the fresh good blood back into the body. If anything goes wrong with the machine it can quickly result in death. In order to move the large quantities of blood for the body, it has to go in thru the carotid artery on the side of the neck. So the first surgery resulted in cutting and tying off the carotid artery so that this machine could be attached. When utilized, an ECMO machine is only a short term assist with a max out time period of 10 days. Over the first few days Jael quickly began to show improvement but then stopped short of where she really needed to be. With a deadline looming closer, as much help as could be offered was given. Slowly she responded and enough positive progress was made to be able to take her off of the machine with a couple days to spare! The surgery to take her off of the machine went well, and she has even improved since then, requiring less oxygen assist! She still has the original problem tho with a hole in her diaphragm and organs that need moved down into the abdominal cavity. If she is able to stay stable or improve then the surgery that is currently scheduled for Friday 1/17 will go ahead as planned. It is a major surgery and will involve moving organs and then artificially patching the hole to repair the diaphragm.
Chris and Michelle have not asked for money and likely never would, however I know that they are not eligible for financial assistance and until Jan 1, 2020 they were unable to get any insurance. They were required to drive to Akron Children's Hospital once a week for many tests and ultrasounds in preparation. They finally were able to get insurance thru the affordable health care online which allowed for preexisting conditions. Thankfully that was able to take place prior to the birth. Even with the insurance finally in place, costs are mounting up. It won't cover everything 100% and just the ECMO unit alone is around $50,000, not including the specialized staff to use it which had to be flown in. Chris is also not working during this time, instead choosing to support Michelle and treasuring every minute he is able to spend with his new daughter.
Their situation is not short term either because if the surgery goes according to plan, she will still likely have at least a two month NICU stay while she heals.
I know this story has spread further than Chris and Michelle ever expected, and for that and the prayers that have resulted, they have felt very blessed. They have urged anyone that is willing, to continue to pray for their little girl and that the upcoming trials are passed with flying colors. Michelle has been keeping a very up to date public posting about Jael and I have linked to it above.
I am making this for anyone that is wanting to give them additional support. Any amount would be appreciated!
Thank you!
Her name is Jael Madison Dehnart.
She is a warrior, she is strong, she is fighting for her life.
I am setting up this gofundme for my dearest friends, two people who are very special, and some of the most generous people I have ever met. Many of you reading this may already be friends or family to them and know them well, others may have been following this story thru social media or prayer groups, or church groups and have never actually met them in person. So I will give a small summary from my perspective.
Meet Chris and Michelle Dehnart.
Chris is a small business owner working as an appliance repair technician, "Electrotech Appliance and Repair". Together with his wife Michelle, they have worked very hard to learn and build a business. Unfortunately one of the downsides to being such a small business is that you don't have access to paid time off, benefits, company paid insurance or paternity leave.
Up until 2018 school year, Michelle had been staying at home and doing ALL the behind the scenes work for Electrotech. In 2018 she got a job as a teacher working at Oak Grove Christian School and that continued until this past December when she finally had to resign due to impending pregnancy and the desire to be a stay at home mom.
Since their marriage, they have both wanted nothing more than to have a child (or 12) and despite their efforts they have had to sit back and watch as both friends and family have continued to succeed where they had failed. Despite the discouragement, they remained ever hopeful and happy for each member of their family or their friends who had little ones. With that in mind you may begin to understand the sheer joy and excitement that first a positive pregnancy test brought, then the amazement of that first ultrasound! They had a baby girl! She was growing and as she did, so did their excitement!
Then the tests, and the resulting news with only three months left to go, brought sadness, fear, and uncertainty into the pregnancy. The baby was diagnosed with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). This basically means that during prenatal development, her diaphragm did not completely close. The diaphragm is a thin skeletal muscle that is very flexible and separates the chest cavity from the abdomen. The diaphragm is the main muscle of respiration. Contraction of the diaphragm muscle expands the lungs during inspiration when one is breathing air in. We rely heavily on the diaphragm for our respiratory function so that when the diaphragm is impaired, it can compromise our breathing. Now in addition to that being an issue, since there was a hole, her liver and some of her intestines migrated up into her chest cavity. This put additional pressure on the heart and lungs during a time when their development was becoming very crucial. Because doctors are unable to assess whether lungs are fully developed prior to birth, it was unknown if she would be able to breath upon being born and they would be unable to fix that. As a result the doctors told Chris and Michelle that there was a very slim chance that their baby would survive and asked if they wanted to just terminate the pregnancy. They decided to give their baby girl a chance and pressed for numbers, they were told 25% was the likelihood of surviving past birth. After their decision to continue was made, plans were set in motion to help the little girl's odds as much as possible. Chris and Michelle decided to name her Jael, for a woman in the bible who with her deeds ended up winning the war for her country. If you would like a better account please feel free to look it up in the Bible, Judges chapter 4. A c-section was scheduled with a specially prepared team ready to receive the baby, because in the chance she did have functioning lungs, she would still need support to breath due to the continued pressure of the liver and intestines in the area that they don't belong, and potentially immediate hookup to some very specialized machines.
On Jan 3, 2020 at 8:49am Baby Jael Madison Dehnart was born! Weighing 7lb 1 oz and 19 inches long, she quickly insisted that she planned to stay! Over the next few days it was very evident that there was a struggle taking place between Jael's will to stay and her body to give up. With a lot of love from her parents, and a LOT of dedication from a very skilled team of doctors and nurses, her little body started to agree with her wishes. It wasn't quite enough however, and finally she went thru surgery to put her on an ECMO machine. This machine is highly specialized and can have it's own risks because it is a lung and heart bypass machine. It does all the work, it creates a vacuum that draws the blood out of the body into a series of tubes and mini machines that remove carbon dioxide from the blood and add in the pure oxygen and then push the fresh good blood back into the body. If anything goes wrong with the machine it can quickly result in death. In order to move the large quantities of blood for the body, it has to go in thru the carotid artery on the side of the neck. So the first surgery resulted in cutting and tying off the carotid artery so that this machine could be attached. When utilized, an ECMO machine is only a short term assist with a max out time period of 10 days. Over the first few days Jael quickly began to show improvement but then stopped short of where she really needed to be. With a deadline looming closer, as much help as could be offered was given. Slowly she responded and enough positive progress was made to be able to take her off of the machine with a couple days to spare! The surgery to take her off of the machine went well, and she has even improved since then, requiring less oxygen assist! She still has the original problem tho with a hole in her diaphragm and organs that need moved down into the abdominal cavity. If she is able to stay stable or improve then the surgery that is currently scheduled for Friday 1/17 will go ahead as planned. It is a major surgery and will involve moving organs and then artificially patching the hole to repair the diaphragm.
Chris and Michelle have not asked for money and likely never would, however I know that they are not eligible for financial assistance and until Jan 1, 2020 they were unable to get any insurance. They were required to drive to Akron Children's Hospital once a week for many tests and ultrasounds in preparation. They finally were able to get insurance thru the affordable health care online which allowed for preexisting conditions. Thankfully that was able to take place prior to the birth. Even with the insurance finally in place, costs are mounting up. It won't cover everything 100% and just the ECMO unit alone is around $50,000, not including the specialized staff to use it which had to be flown in. Chris is also not working during this time, instead choosing to support Michelle and treasuring every minute he is able to spend with his new daughter.
Their situation is not short term either because if the surgery goes according to plan, she will still likely have at least a two month NICU stay while she heals.
I know this story has spread further than Chris and Michelle ever expected, and for that and the prayers that have resulted, they have felt very blessed. They have urged anyone that is willing, to continue to pray for their little girl and that the upcoming trials are passed with flying colors. Michelle has been keeping a very up to date public posting about Jael and I have linked to it above.
I am making this for anyone that is wanting to give them additional support. Any amount would be appreciated!
Thank you!
Organizer and beneficiary
Sarah Moor
Organizer
Marietta, OH
Chris Dehnart
Beneficiary
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