Baby Cross Johnson's Medical Expenses

The Johnson family recently welcomed the newest member of their family -Cross Johnson - on June 17th 2021. Since baby Cross' arrival he has been fighting to remain healthy and become strong enough to go home. He has required extensive medical interventions for his lungs and will continue to need medical attention for his Kidneys, with the possibility of a kidney transplant down the road. We love Sarah and Matt dearly and ask that you bless them in anyway possible through prayer, or donation to help with medical expenses.

Update from Sarah’s Facebook!

Cross David Johnson

was born June 17, 2021 at 37 weeks and 5 days, at 4:30 am weighing 7lbs 7oz.

A middle of the night labor and birth was quite exciting, given that he was breech and we made it to the hospital in time for my first c section, and the neonatologist team to prepare for his arrival. Because of his extremely high risk pregnancy, our hospital was prepared for him to come.

It’s been a rollercoaster since Cross has arrived. As soon as he was born he was taken straight to the NICU at Harris hospital. His first 48 hours in the NICU were really scary and sad. His lungs were really struggling. He was put on the ventilator, jet ventilator, nitric oxide and given surfactant. On the night of his second day, he made a huge leap and proved that he was a fighter! His lungs began to improve and he came off of a few machines, then he was stable enough to transfer over to Cooks Children’s Hospital.

Once we got to Cooks, he had a few procedures done to get catheters and lines in place to begin dialysis because he was not producing any urine and both kidneys were showing to be non-functioning.

On day 5 he came off the ventilator and began peritoneal dialysis. But over the course of the next 3 days this was not effective. His dialysis port was leaking really bad and he wasn’t draining properly. He took on 3 lbs of fluid and we needed to try something else.

Cooks Children’s just started using a new machine called Aquadeks that preforms Aquapheresis. This is basically hemodialysis for babies and small kids. We are really fortunate our hospital just received this machine so we had the option to do the hemodialysis while his other dialysis port was healing. It’s only being used in 5 hospitals in the country. So on day 8, Cross had surgery to install the new port and began the Aquadeks machine.

After 6 days on Aquadeks his swelling had all gone down and he was back to his birth weight and all of his labs were almost to normal ranges. So we went back to the peritoneal dialysis to give that a try again.

Over the last 16 days of his life he has produced small amounts of urine but the nephrologists say in combination his kidneys are probably working at less than 10%. Our current goals are to get some consistency from the peritoneal dialysis and start removing some of the lines he has in. With the big picture being that he will eventually need a kidney transplant.

Please pray for us and for Cross:
-Pray that we find some routine amidst this journey while we juggle time at the nicu and time with the girls.
-Pray that Cross’ kidneys would heal and grow and miraculously start to function.
-Pray we can stay on the peritoneal dialysis as this is the only way for us to bring him home one day.
-Pray for Norah and Shiloh as this is the most time we’ve ever spent away from them.

We are so thankful for our friends and family who have loved us and supported us though all of this.

I can’t even put into words what we have fully be through over the last 16 days but we are so thankful that Cross is alive and that he is fighting.

Galatians 6:24
“May I never boast in anything but the CROSS of Jesus Christ.”

Thank you Jesus for the most precious gift of Cross’ life!

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