The Dunn Family

Hi, my name is Kateland- long-time best friend of Alexa and John.

I wanted to create this Go Fund Me in an attempt to relieve these amazing people of the crippling medical debt they have unfortunately acquired in the last couple of weeks of 2022. Below is their story:

If you know Alexa and John, you may already know that they are the amazing parents of 2 kids, Raegan (4) and JJ (2.5). For those of you that don't know them personally - John is a mechanic (thanks for fixing all my car problems in the past) and Alexa has a full-time job as an *AMAZING* stay-at-home mom, to care for her children- one of which, needs a lot of special care. That leads me to introduce you to “Sweet Baby Rae”…

Sweet Baby Rae (Raegan) has a medically complex background with a rare form of epilepsy, for which she has a VNS implant to help control the constant seizures she endures. She is a brilliant young girl- even while being non-speaking. She is probably better at math than I am! You can feel her emotions through her body language.

Raegan relies mostly on her G tube for adequate nutrients….(which she just got an awesome new pole to hang her feeding bags on- hallelujah!). Rae loves coloring, learning on her iPad, and going to her ABA therapy!

JJ is a wild firecracker and is absolutely "the class-clown". He loves the movie Cars- he would probably watch it 24/7 if he could. That wild boy loves playing outside with his sister, especially when there’s water involved-whether it’d be rain puddles or the pool they put up for the kids in the summer. JJ loves dinosaurs & his doggies. He is truly a Wild soul with so much love to give!!

Alexa and John have handled Reagan's condition with such grace, but a simple cold to her can spike a fever and immediately send her to the PICU - which unfortunately is more frequent than anyone would ever even believe. Just about 2 weeks ago, Raegan came down with a very quick onset "cold". This virus resulted in spiking a fever, followed by multiple seizures…and due to her medical history and need for oxygen- she was admitted to the PICU for multiple days. As always, that strong little girl pulled through.

Now here's where my heart just shatters... fast forward to just 2 days ago, Christmas Eve 2022, JJ started showing signs of a mild cold. On Christmas day, he hardly even had the energy to open presents. SO unlike JJ! They closely monitored him and ended up having to call 911 when they noticed he was so lethargic and his lips and fingertips were blue/gray. His oxygen was 81 when EMS arrived. They were admitted to the hospital where they thought he was making some progress-but unfortunately, he took a quick turn for the worst. They could not stabilize him enough.. so he too, was admitted into the PICU- just 2 weeks after his sister got OUT of the PICU.

With all the attempts in the last 24 hours to get JJ stabilized- nothing was working. This sweet little 2.5-year-old boy was intubated earlier today (12/26/22), and during the process of intubation, his heart stopped and resulting in minutes of CPR (Please pray there is no long term physical damage in those moments).

A few hours later, the doctors made the decision to place him an ECMO machine. An ECMO machine is essentially life support to do the work of his heart and lungs so his body can rest and heal. It is unknown how long he will need to be on this machine- but they expect anywhere from 7-10 days.

The amount of emotional and physical trauma this family has been through is extremely heart-wrenching. As you can imagine, the medical bills for a medically complex child are already extremely overwhelming- and go ahead and add this on to the list.

I'm asking that if you can, please donate to help this deserving family and relieve them of the financial burden these PICU stays will be and provide some financial relief so John can take some time to be with his family during this hard time. These two people are such genuine, kind humans that would never ask for anything- but I am asking this of you. Even if it is just a few dollars- every bit helps.

If you cannot donate, please share this link and please pray for JJ to make a full recovery. Please pray that this family can have a break from hospital stays and for optimal health.

Thank you for your support to the Dunn Family. This is the least I can do as they navigate these hardships.