Gianna’s Journey

Hello! For those of you who don’t know, my sister, Julia and her boyfriend Rafael, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Gianna, November 23rd. Gianna was born with a recessed jaw and a cleft pallet (Robins Sequence). With this diagnosis, having a recessed jaw has affected her ability to eat and breathe without assistance. Gianna has been staying in the NICU with her care team working diligently to get her thriving on her own. After trial and error, her team has determined surgery being the best course of action to assist moving her jaw to the correct placement. They then transported Gianna from Duluth to Children’s Hospital in St. Paul to get the care she needs and to move forward with the surgery. Dec 9th, Gianna successfully completed her Mandible Distraction (jaw surgery to help move her jaw to the correct place). She is now in the process of recovering from undergoing this surgery, and is responding very well, the next steps are working on her ability to eat on her own and get her breathing properly without having to be on her stomach or side laying. During these hard times, Julia and Rafael have been out of work to be with Gianna in her recovery process. Any donations are greatly appreciated and will go towards the expenses caused from being out of work and away from home.