Baby Tessa's Memorial
Donation protected
My amazing, sweet little sister Ashley and her family are going through a stretch that no one should ever have to endure. Their baby girl Tessa, who passed away in the early hours of April 27, 2017. Losing a baby is tragic enough, but what led to this?
At 29 weeks pregnant, on February 2, 2017, Ashley was in a serious auto accident, along with her oldest daughter and two foster babies (ages 3 months and 15 months). My sister is an incredible mom and foster mom. Thankfully, the children were not seriously injured. Ashley’s van, which she had bought used the night before the accident, was driven off the road and into a tree, and totalled by a reckless driver. The other driver was presumed by multiple officers on scene to be impaired by drugs. In fact, the police report reveals that the other driver personally admitted that he’s a frequent marijuana user. However, the other driver was only cited for an “improper turn” and not for impairment because he passed the dumbed down field tests for drug recognition. Druggies got rights too you know- no more blood or follicle tests allowed for drug suspicion cases in the field, the cops are scared of being sued. Meanwhile, Ashley had blacked out, emergency personnel attended to her, her daughter and the 2 young fosters. Ashley was rushed to the ER. She could not feel any movement of the baby inside yet lots of contractions. Medics on scene stated they feared the accident had been fatal for the unborn baby due to the bruising on Ashley’s abdomen. Luckily, baby's activity returned, the ultrasound looked okay, contractions mellowed, and Ashley was discharged a day later with a black eye, a dislocated shoulder, a sprained wrist, and lacerations on the shoulder and belly from the seatbelt. Ashley said she felt like a train had hit her. Discharge papers included 2 follow up instructions= 1, Due to high risk for pre-term labor, only do activity as tolerated, and 2, get another ultrasound in about 4 weeks because some trauma injuries do not manifest immediately. There are soo many details but I wont go into all of them but here’s some snapshots- Ashley’s injuries prevented her from continuing the demands of foster care for the 3 month old (who had been grossly neglected, weighed only 6lbs) and his 15 month old brother who had been abused. Both boys had been making amazing improvements since being with Ashley. They had to be re-homed a week after the accident. Then, 4 weeks after the accident, Ashley started to get super swollen, unlike any pregnancy before, this was to be her 5th baby. She went in for a check up and ultrasound. Doctor said, “Your baby girl is very sick, my team will meet you at the hospital”, but offered only vague reasoning. By the way, they had wanted the baby’s gender to be a surprise until delivery, so much for that. Alarmed, Ashley and her husband went straight to the hospital and were blown away with scary information about their unborn baby. Baby “Tessa” as she was soon named had a rare condition called “hydrops”. This means she has extra fluid in more than one body system. In Tessa’s case, she had excess fluid in her lungs, around her lungs, subcutaneous/ “3rd spacing” and abdomen. The average mortality rate was high, 50-80%. Hydrops is most often caused by a congenital defect or chromosomal mutation. After extensive testing, all common causes were ruled out. All efforts to allow baby to go to term and deliver vaginally were exhausted, including steroids, bed rest, a myriad of drugs and so on. Also note that Ashley had pre-paid a birth center to do a natural/water birth, so that’s another dream gone. On March 15, 2017 Baby Tessa was delivered by emergency c-section surrounded by 13 high risk doctors and nurses because baby needed immediate care that could not be provided in utero. Baby was given a stunningly low 10% chance of making it through delivery. Tessa beat the odds for the first of many times. She was born and quickly stabbed with dozens of needles to drain the excess fluid. The diagnosis was later updated to be “chylothorax”, which means the thoracic duct doesn’t manage fluid properly, and is a precursor to hydrops. Again, doctors tested all plausible causes of this defect and came up empty. From that point, Docs basically stopped considering the etiology (cause) of the chylothorax and focused on treating Tessa, which was good and bad. Good because Tessa needed tons of constant care but bad because Docs never formally noted the one and only plausible cause left, the car accident. To shorten the story, Tessa fought so many setbacks so valiantly but ultimately succumbed to lung failure in the early hours on April 27, 2017. Docs are now “not permitted” to even sign a vanilla statement that trauma from the car accident is a plausible cause of Tessa’s injuries, even though they have zero other answers or suggestions. That’s crazy. So now, a full autopsy is underway, but results are a month out. Who’s to say that injuries to the thoracic duct (which in Tessa is the size of a hair) would even be recognizable nearly 3 months after the accident? What a nightmare! In other words, even with pending legal help, the odds of having a doctor say the accident is the plausible cause is shamefully remote.
What about insurance? For Ashley’s family, they have always been super healthy, and without getting political, they don’t have an Obamacare plan. They do have a “health share” plan, but so far this alternative plan has rejected about $47,000 out of $50,000 worth of medical bills. And that’s just the costs of Ashley’s one day in the ER after the accident. Bills for her delivery haven’t even come in yet, guesstimated to be about $15,000. Nor have any bills for Tessa come in yet, estimated at $3,000 per day she was in NICU (x 43 days = $130,000). Altogether, that’s $182,000 of anticipated expenses, and zero baby. The at-fault driver has some insurance thank goodness, but low limits, believed to be only $25,000 per incident. While that money will likely eventually arrive, the problem is it will take months to get it because no monies will be paid without a release form, which can’t even be created yet. Ashley has focused on being with her critically ill baby for 6 weeks now, and postponed her own shoulder/wrist rehabs until hopefully baby was doing better. A release can’t be made until all rehab costs are quantified, which is still likely weeks out… Of course the family will ask for bills to be put on hold due to extenuating circumstances, but no business gives those out and stays in business long? And even if they get some bills put on hold, for how long? Hence my plea to help my sweet sister’s family get through this rocky stretch.
PS- Icing on the cake, their house flooded due to a fluke accident on Saturday where a garden hose ruptured on the front lawn and shot a waterfall directly at the front door. Mitigation is on-going.
At 29 weeks pregnant, on February 2, 2017, Ashley was in a serious auto accident, along with her oldest daughter and two foster babies (ages 3 months and 15 months). My sister is an incredible mom and foster mom. Thankfully, the children were not seriously injured. Ashley’s van, which she had bought used the night before the accident, was driven off the road and into a tree, and totalled by a reckless driver. The other driver was presumed by multiple officers on scene to be impaired by drugs. In fact, the police report reveals that the other driver personally admitted that he’s a frequent marijuana user. However, the other driver was only cited for an “improper turn” and not for impairment because he passed the dumbed down field tests for drug recognition. Druggies got rights too you know- no more blood or follicle tests allowed for drug suspicion cases in the field, the cops are scared of being sued. Meanwhile, Ashley had blacked out, emergency personnel attended to her, her daughter and the 2 young fosters. Ashley was rushed to the ER. She could not feel any movement of the baby inside yet lots of contractions. Medics on scene stated they feared the accident had been fatal for the unborn baby due to the bruising on Ashley’s abdomen. Luckily, baby's activity returned, the ultrasound looked okay, contractions mellowed, and Ashley was discharged a day later with a black eye, a dislocated shoulder, a sprained wrist, and lacerations on the shoulder and belly from the seatbelt. Ashley said she felt like a train had hit her. Discharge papers included 2 follow up instructions= 1, Due to high risk for pre-term labor, only do activity as tolerated, and 2, get another ultrasound in about 4 weeks because some trauma injuries do not manifest immediately. There are soo many details but I wont go into all of them but here’s some snapshots- Ashley’s injuries prevented her from continuing the demands of foster care for the 3 month old (who had been grossly neglected, weighed only 6lbs) and his 15 month old brother who had been abused. Both boys had been making amazing improvements since being with Ashley. They had to be re-homed a week after the accident. Then, 4 weeks after the accident, Ashley started to get super swollen, unlike any pregnancy before, this was to be her 5th baby. She went in for a check up and ultrasound. Doctor said, “Your baby girl is very sick, my team will meet you at the hospital”, but offered only vague reasoning. By the way, they had wanted the baby’s gender to be a surprise until delivery, so much for that. Alarmed, Ashley and her husband went straight to the hospital and were blown away with scary information about their unborn baby. Baby “Tessa” as she was soon named had a rare condition called “hydrops”. This means she has extra fluid in more than one body system. In Tessa’s case, she had excess fluid in her lungs, around her lungs, subcutaneous/ “3rd spacing” and abdomen. The average mortality rate was high, 50-80%. Hydrops is most often caused by a congenital defect or chromosomal mutation. After extensive testing, all common causes were ruled out. All efforts to allow baby to go to term and deliver vaginally were exhausted, including steroids, bed rest, a myriad of drugs and so on. Also note that Ashley had pre-paid a birth center to do a natural/water birth, so that’s another dream gone. On March 15, 2017 Baby Tessa was delivered by emergency c-section surrounded by 13 high risk doctors and nurses because baby needed immediate care that could not be provided in utero. Baby was given a stunningly low 10% chance of making it through delivery. Tessa beat the odds for the first of many times. She was born and quickly stabbed with dozens of needles to drain the excess fluid. The diagnosis was later updated to be “chylothorax”, which means the thoracic duct doesn’t manage fluid properly, and is a precursor to hydrops. Again, doctors tested all plausible causes of this defect and came up empty. From that point, Docs basically stopped considering the etiology (cause) of the chylothorax and focused on treating Tessa, which was good and bad. Good because Tessa needed tons of constant care but bad because Docs never formally noted the one and only plausible cause left, the car accident. To shorten the story, Tessa fought so many setbacks so valiantly but ultimately succumbed to lung failure in the early hours on April 27, 2017. Docs are now “not permitted” to even sign a vanilla statement that trauma from the car accident is a plausible cause of Tessa’s injuries, even though they have zero other answers or suggestions. That’s crazy. So now, a full autopsy is underway, but results are a month out. Who’s to say that injuries to the thoracic duct (which in Tessa is the size of a hair) would even be recognizable nearly 3 months after the accident? What a nightmare! In other words, even with pending legal help, the odds of having a doctor say the accident is the plausible cause is shamefully remote.
What about insurance? For Ashley’s family, they have always been super healthy, and without getting political, they don’t have an Obamacare plan. They do have a “health share” plan, but so far this alternative plan has rejected about $47,000 out of $50,000 worth of medical bills. And that’s just the costs of Ashley’s one day in the ER after the accident. Bills for her delivery haven’t even come in yet, guesstimated to be about $15,000. Nor have any bills for Tessa come in yet, estimated at $3,000 per day she was in NICU (x 43 days = $130,000). Altogether, that’s $182,000 of anticipated expenses, and zero baby. The at-fault driver has some insurance thank goodness, but low limits, believed to be only $25,000 per incident. While that money will likely eventually arrive, the problem is it will take months to get it because no monies will be paid without a release form, which can’t even be created yet. Ashley has focused on being with her critically ill baby for 6 weeks now, and postponed her own shoulder/wrist rehabs until hopefully baby was doing better. A release can’t be made until all rehab costs are quantified, which is still likely weeks out… Of course the family will ask for bills to be put on hold due to extenuating circumstances, but no business gives those out and stays in business long? And even if they get some bills put on hold, for how long? Hence my plea to help my sweet sister’s family get through this rocky stretch.
PS- Icing on the cake, their house flooded due to a fluke accident on Saturday where a garden hose ruptured on the front lawn and shot a waterfall directly at the front door. Mitigation is on-going.
Organizer and beneficiary
Kristina Hargrave
Organizer
Gilbert, AZ
Ashley Ellsworth
Beneficiary