Azrael is coming home and we need help!

Allison Tolbert is organizing this fundraiser.

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Greetings, my name is Allison and I'd like to introduce you to our family.

On May 23rd this year, Frank Ellenburg and I gave birth to a beautiful little boy - Azrael. He was born at 34 weeks with 8 birth defects and has been in the ICN (intensive care nursery) at Duke Hospital since.

We have spent that time bouncing between home and the Ronald McDonald House of Durham, struggling to keep up our work hours and income. In the past 6 months he has undergone around 7 surgeries, over a half dozen serious infections and 12ish stints on a ventilator.

Among his birth defects he had a T.A. fistula, two in his esophagus (an atresia or gap and a strictured area), butterfly vertebrae with spinal entanglement, an extra rib and three defects in his heart.

During these 6 months I haven't had a single full paycheck and almost half of those pay periods were with no check at all. Frank's income has been almost as inconsistent - some full checks, many significantly diminished and several no check pay-periods.

At this time Azrael's T.A. fistula has been closed off, his 2 stomach perforations (complications of being intubated with the fistula) have been repaired and his esophagus has been made whole - so about half of his defects. He is just now learning to eat for the first time.

In the next week or two our son will be coming home (with a bunch of medical equipment and needs) pending open heart surgery late spring and a later surgery to repair his spine. Despite our best efforts our household is in financial ruin. Steps are being taken to get us at home nursing care so that we can both get back to working the hours needed to support our household but that will take time. During this time I even applied for food stamps but were denied because it was during a period when Frank had a couple of good checks in a row. I've never made one of these but at this point I don't know what to do. I wasn't able to work this week and may not be able to next week as well.

We need help, financially, to catch up and to get ourselves through this period of uncertainty. I know the holidays are upon us and this is a terrible time to be asking for help like this but if anyone is willing and can afford to any amount of money would help immensely.

With love and light,

Allison, Frank & Azrael

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