Hello,

I am Sweet Baby Nolan’s grandmother/Minnie. As many of you probably know, our sweet Nolan has had a tough start to life. Nolan was born on October 29, 2024, and spent his first three days of life in the NICU. The doctors said he had pulmonary hypertension. He shocked all of the doctors at how well he was doing in the NICU. He started breathing on his own and was released after 3 days.

During his time at home, Linden and Jacob noticed he had issues with swallowing while taking a bottle. They soon had him in feeding therapy, which was not making much of a difference. They took him for a swallow study the week before Christmas. Nolan failed the swallow study so much so they could not even thicken his feeds enough without him aspirating. They immediately admitted him to the hospital as he was aspirating so badly it was a threat to take him home. He was put on a feeding tube while he was in the hospital for another 3 days. Linden and Jacob still do not have any answers as to what is causing the aspiration and Nolan remains on a feeding tube.

Nolan has daily doctor’s appointments and will have a procedure on January 22 where he will be under anesthesia. He recently started VitalStim therapy. The therapy is used to try and help strengthen the muscles that help him swallow. Nolan will need to go twice a week for likely 4 months. Linden and Jacob have been told Nolan’s case is rare in how severe it is. Nolan’s medical bills are now mounting up and Linden could be in the situation where she has to decide to leave her teaching job or take Nolan to his numerous doctor’s appointments as she was not granted unpaid leave to take Nolan to his numerous doctor’s appointments. Linden applied for discretionary leave and was denied that as well.

The stress for Linden and Jacob regarding the health of precious Nolan and unplanned medical bills in addition to maybe having to live on one salary is a lot. In order to ease this burden, I have started a GoFundMe account to hopefully take a little stress off of Linden and Jacob. If you are unable to give, I completely understand, but please pray for our Sweet Nolan and Linden and Jacob.