Zach and Melanie Ruder

Bright lights, fresh air, new noises, big rooms, being held for the first time and making that connection with the people responsible for creation. The world is something new to newborns, but for Haylee Ruder it didn’t begin the way anyone hopes.

Mother Melanie went in to Sedgwick County Health Center on March 6, with contractions within 2-3 minutes of each other. What the doctors found caused an emergency c-section. The baby’s heart rate dropped to almost 30 beats per minute caused by an underlying infection in the placenta causing stress.

This in turn caused her to excrete into the sac, which is referred to as meconium aspiration. The excretion got into her lungs and digestive system. Essentially, she inhaled her own poop. Sedgwick County Health did all they could and decided it was best to transfer her to St. Luke’s Presbyterian Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Haylee and father Zach were sent via flight for life to Centennial Airport and then transported in an ambulance to the hospital on the 7th.

Due to the severity of Haylee’s condition, Melanie was released on the 7th so that she could be with her husband and help him make decisions concerning the wellbeing of their struggling newborn. “It all happened so fast all I could think about was whatever it takes to make Haylee better let’s do it, anything she needs no matter what it takes” said new mother Melanie.
Zach and Melanie are being housed at the Ronald McDonald House in Denver, Colorado, “For the past 36 years, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Denver has offered a loving home away from home to families needing to be near their seriously ill or injured children while they’re being treated at metropolitan area hospitals,” as it is stated on the official website.
Father Zach Ruder was blessed on his birthday, March 27th, as it was the first time either parent was able to hold little Haylee. Nearly three weeks after her birth. “It was the best birthday present I could have asked for,” said Zach.
The meconium has now worked its way out of her system and her lungs are healing. Haylee has been in St. Luke’s Presbyterian Hospital for four weeks and her doctors are still speculating that she will remain there for two to three more weeks.
Newborn Haylee has been hooked up to tubes throughout her short new life, but has recently been weaned off her breathing tube. The doctors are working on trying to get her to gain weight and have her lungs work properly on their own. She has an MRI later this week to check brain function and soon she’ll start learning how to eat normally and be able to lose her feeding tube after her lungs work at the correct rate.
Parents Zach and Melanie Ruder of Julesburg, Colorado, who were married on September 14, 2013, are young new parents who have had to go through a frightening ordeal that no parents, new or experienced, want to go through. “Neither of us ever thought we would need to plan for anything like this to happen. But we’re here now and we will do what it takes.” The young family has health insurance but have such a hefty deductible to pay. The parents have been able to take off of work to be with Haylee in Denver.
A fund for the struggling family has been set up on Go Fund Me at the following linkhttp://www.gofundme.com/ZMHR3615.

This is the most recent photo of Haylee at four weeks after she got her breathing tube taken out.
This is the most recent photo of Haylee at four weeks after she got her breathing tube taken out.