Cody Grennan (Cody's Giggles)

Cody's Giggles - Cody Grennan, son of Johnny Grennan (from Sligo, Ireland and now living in Spain) and Pinja Koskinen (from Helsinki, Finland and now living in Spain).   Our son Cody was born in  Torrevieja Hospital on Sunday morning the 8th of September 2019.   As soon as he was delivered, the doctors discovered that he wasn't breathing. He was rushed out of the room and brought into the ICU unit in the hospital for more examinations.   Two hours after delivery, he was transferred to Alicante hospital, an hour away from us.  In the next couple of days and a few different scans later,  they found out that he was missing a middle part of his esophagael tube.  The condition he was diagnosed with is called esophageal atresia. He had his first surgery at 4 days old, luckily it was a success.  He was kept under sedatives for 6 days but as soon as they tried to remove the breathing tube,  he still wasn't able to breath on his own.  More scans followed, however nothing was found out until they decided to take a scan from a different angle, from the top of his head, where they discovered that his trachea was nearly non-existent.  Since these type of problems are rare enough, there were no specialists in Alicante to deal with this issue and they had to transfer him to Valencia La Fe Hospital, a 3 hour journey away from us.  More scans were had, speacialists told us that Cody's condition is extremely rare, nobody else in Europe with these types of birth defects together were seen before.   Our little boy is very special and very unique.  The start of his trachea has subglottic stenosis, which is narrowing of the airways. There are 4 levels, where level 4 is a totally closed entrance of the trachea.  Cody has level 1.  The whole of his trachea was softer than a perfect trachea is, but on top of that, he had a part of the tube which was without vascular rings and therefor his windpipe closed in that area.  He was 3 weeks old when he underwent this risky and dangerous surgery, which was never done before. They cut out a part of his vascular rings, they twisted both ends of tube and attached them back together.  Surgery went well, but recovery was long, slow and with so many complications that part that we try daily to forget about.  After weeks of recovery in hospital, and Cody's breathing still not right, they decided to put  a stent in to the part of his trachea that they previously did surgery on, because it was still too floppy and was collapsing all the time. That was his 3rd operation, which he reacted to very badly and we had lots of scary moments during those weeks of recovery.  But Cody is a fighter, he is tough and after staying in the hospital for 3 months, he was able to come home with us and we made the joyous journey from Valencia La Fe Hospital to our home in Cabo Roig, Spain.  This is the first 3 months of our wee boy's life in a nutshell.  Cody's fight to breath goes on.  He is getting bigger and bigger every day in front of our eyes, he loves his food, his bottle and his solid food which we have been able to start to give him.   Cody is a fighter, he is always smiling, bouncing, kicking, laughing and doing all the things a healthy baby can.  In that way Cody is no different BUT our wee boy struggles to breath and his struggle goes on.  Cody's mum and dad wanted to explain the reason for the need to do this GoFundMe page and below is their explanation for same. 

Reason for this go fund me page is that we need help to survive until next year.  We moved to Spain May 2019, knowing the fact that there is only summer season when your main income is made and winter is quiet with not much of work.  We worked hard and saved that we would be comfortable and be able to enjoy our new life with baby boy without stress of bills or daily expenses.  We had no idea that Cody  was having all these issues. I got all scans done, we had 5D scan done and everything was perfect.  So with all travelling, eating, paying our usual bills and mostly because Cody's dad wasn't able to work full time, our savings were gone faster than we expected. When we got home, winter season was already on, so no work, no money coming in. Next thing Covid19 hit us and we knew that we won't be surviving another winter after everything what happened.

A note from the page organiser - It took a while to convince Pinja and Johnny to do this.  They feel that they are not entitled to this page, they feel that they can struggle on, but as Pinja states above, Covid19 hit and while it has hit us all, most of us are happy out and surviving.  The truth for Pinja and Johnny is that Cody needs specialist care and that care can only be got via a 6 hour round trip from their home.  Due to Covid19 only one parent is allowed in to see Cody at any one time and they are unable to stay at the hospital with him so the fact of the matter is that it is cheaper for them to do that 6 hour round trip, sometimes on a daily basis, than it is to stay in Valencia.   They are heart broken, stressed, tired, exhausted and worried and anxious about their little boy.  Johnny (Cody's dad) told me the other day that he would sell or raffle off some of his much needed music equipment.  When I heard this I cried, I got annoyed and very angry, that my Johnny G who I absolutely adore so much would even have to think about doing something like that.  His music, his son and his partner are his life.  There was no way he was going to sell or raffle off his gear which he needs for his work.  So I set up the page and after more messages, texts and phone calls finally got the authority from Johnny and Pinja to hit the go button and put this page live.  She whether you can give a little or a lot, please donate something to help their wee boy have the best life they can give him.