Oliver's heart

Hi,

My name is Michelle. I'm Brittany and Jake's cousin. I felt led to put this fundraiser together for baby Ollie. Brittany and Jake have been through a rollercoaster over the last few months. When baby Oliver was diagnosed with ALCAPA. Which is a congenital heart defect. After open heart surgery and several illnesses baby Ollie is still fighting for his life and to keep his heart two months later. Oliver and the whole family has a long road ahead that may or may not require a heart transplant. I'm hoping that if you feel led you can give a small amount to help this sweet family with some big medical bills they have coming their way. If nothing else please add baby Ollie to your prayer chain as he can use extra prayers. Brittany kindly supplied me with Ollie's full story below. Thank you and God bless!

On August 2nd 2022, Oliver was born to parents Brittany and Jake Hale. The pregnancy and birth were fairly routine and uneventful, but at just 10 days old he caught his first virus. His symptoms were a fever and respiratory distress so we were sent to the ER and spent 24hrs in children’s hospital for observation, after which we were sent home to wait out the virus. After about a week his symptoms had improved, but he was still working hard to breathe. Then at 26 days old he was sick again, this time with COVID-19, so back to the ER we went. His symptoms were typical (including respiratory distress) and we spent 24hrs in children’s hospital for observation then were sent home to wait out the virus. Oliver slowly improved but continued to have increased work of breathing and began to have “blue spells” where he would struggle to breathe and his lips would turn blue. These blue spells were terrifying, but we were told that as long as they were less than a minute long then they were normal and harmless. As time went on Oliver continued to have respiratory distress and blue spells so we took him back to the pediatrician, his exam and bloodwork all came back normal, so she believed it to be “post COVID wheeze” or “long COVID”; but we weren’t convinced so she referred us to a pediatric pulmonologist. We went home with a nebulizer and albuterol to try while we waited for the pulmonologist (their first opening was a month later). The albuterol didn’t help so we tried a steroid which also didn’t help. At this point we were done waiting, so I called the pulmonologist and explained that Oliver HAD to be seen earlier and they were able to get us in the next day(Nov 15th). It was at this appointment with the pulmonologist where they took an X-ray of Oliver’s lungs and saw his heart was extremely enlarged. That X-ray changed everything, it was all suddenly very serious and very urgent. The pulmonologist brought in a cardiologist, had some nurses sit with Oliver, brought me a chair, and asked if I wanted to have my husband on the phone while they talked through their diagnosis. It was then that they told us that Oliver had a rare congenital heart defect called ALCAPA (Anomalous Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery) which would require open heart surgery to repair and though he appeared fairly healthy, he was actually critically ill. We were then walked down to Erlanger’s ER where we waited for the first available emergency transport to Vanderbilt Children’s ER. We followed the ambulance from Erlanger to Vanderbilt where we were received by a welcoming party so large that we had to wait outside the room while they determined how stable he was and what steps they needed to take immediately. They determined he was stable enough for them to do some more imaging of his heart before surgery and on Nov 16th he was wheeled back into surgery for his repair. They were able to successfully relocate the artery and patch the hole where the artery used to be. Then came the unforgiving roller coaster of recovery in the PCICU. Recovery has been slow and plagued by multiple setbacks including a viral cold, double pneumonia (which caused him to be emergently re-intubated), medication withdrawal, two bouts of pneumatosis/NOMI, multiple (I have literally lost count) of IV and EPIV failures, and teething. We have all pushed so hard to try and save the heart he has, but we have also had to face the reality that his heart simply may not be able to recover and in that case his only option would be a heart transplant. Whichever path we take, the road will be long and difficult. Oliver has already been in the PCICU for over 2 months and as the end of my leave approaches, and my husbands FMLA runs out, I know that we will have to return to work before our boy comes home, which breaks my heart, but we are going to do whatever we have to do to make sure we have the resources to continue his care.