Medical bill assistance
Donation protected
My birthday is on October 29, and I am reaching out to my Facebook family with this GoFundMe/Birthday fundraiser on behalf or my dear Friends Susie and and Derek Burns. They desperately need our help with their medical bills and living expenses.
Susie and Derek Burns' son Xavier Morrison Burns was born on July 17, 2023 at 1:09pm. He came into this world strong and healthy and the new parents were thrilled to take him home from St Joesephs Hospital in Denver on July 19th. After fifteen days with him at home their whole world was turned upside down...the story of Xavier's illness and his miraculous recovery is detailed below.
Understand that his story is a story of enormous gratitude for the gift of science, for the power of prayer and meditation, and the belief that all things are possible within the workings of the universe.
A little after 10:00pm on August 2, 2023 Susie and Derek woke up to the sound of Xavier whimpering, a sound he had never made before. It seemed like his breath was labored. He had been fussier than normal for a couple of days, crying to the point of being inconsolable. Susie and Derek got up to comfort him and he felt really warm so they took his temperature, which at the time seemed like it was within the normal range. He wouldn't take to the breast or the bottle, and that was cause for concern, because he normally had a healthy appetite. Exhausting all of the usual remedies they ultimately decided to call the 24 hour pediatric nurse hotline to get some educated guidance. They explained Xavier's symptoms and were told he needed to be seen right away and directed the three of them to Children's Hospital Emergency Room. Within minutes they were in the car and driving toward the help that their seventeen day old son desperately needed. His breath had become even more labored. Susie and Derek were afraid he wasn't going to survive the car ride to the emergency room, so after calling 911 they pulled off the highway to park and wait for the ambulance to arrive. They arrived quickly and got Xavier on oxygen and began taking his vitals right away, as they took the two panicked parents to the closest hospital- Denver Health. Spending the night in the emergency room scared out of their minds, they ran all kinds of tests on Xavier trying to figure out what was wrong with this seemingly healthy newborn baby. After several blood cultures, a lumbar puncture and what seemed like eternity it was revealed that this baby boy was very sick with bacterial meningitis.
In the early morning of August 3, Xavier was admitted into the hospital, and prescribed a course of heavy duty antibiotics to stay alive. Bacterial meningitis is a life-threatening inflammation of the membranes (meninges) that surround and protect your brain and spinal cord. The infection was found not only in his cerebral spinal fluid but also his blood.
Thankfully, Xavier was discharged from the hospital on September 3rd, after being in the critical care unit at Children's Hospital for over a Month. The bacterial infection having been cleared up, and all of his scans coming up negative, Xavier and his parents were heading home. As you can imagine, the young couple (Susie is a yoga teacher, and massage therapist. Derek works at Whole Foods as a Freight Supervisor) are having to grapple with medical bills ($13,100.00 to date), as well as restarting their financial Homelife after dealing with a very sick baby boy. Any amount of money and words of courage, strength and hope will be gratefully accepted. Thank you!
Co-organizers (3)
Michael Jochum
Organizer
Denver, CO
Susie Ritchey Burns
Beneficiary
Derek Burns
Co-organizer