Brano Babies Medical Fund
Donation protected
Hi friends,
I am being brave today and asking for your help for my brother and sister in law and my first niece and nephew..
We need help financially and massive amounts of prayer. LOTS of prayers for babies but also for momma and daddy to stay strong through this. A lot of you know and Im sure a lot of you don't know the true, real, raw, details of what my family has been through this past month.
I am devastated to see my brother and sister in law have to go through this. Having the twins premature is one thing but being airflighted to Salt Lake is another. Of course momma has to be there..but shouldn't dad be able to as well. Not only is Ashley taking this time off of work.. my brother has to stay home to work to provide financially for ALL the medical expenses as well as the unknowns of what the future is going to bring. It saddens my heart that he wont be able to be at their bedside every day.
I wanted to put this together in the hops of raising money so my brother can fly every weekend to see his babies and his wife..and help relieve this HUGE burden of stress that we all know finances do.
Im asking for your help to donate anything your heart feels you can give. No amount is to small. If you cannot donate please SHARE this. My HOPE and goal is to raise 40K that will be just a fraction of what my family is going to need to release the burden of debt.
Please share my mission with your friends and family.
Love,
Morgan
From Ashley:
At 2:00 AM on August 1, 2016 Kyle and I had the scare of a lifetime. At only 24 weeks my water had broke. We went into the hospital to confirm it really was my water that had broke, but I wasn't actually in labor. They decided to admit me and keep me on bed rest for as long as possible to keep our little babies in. The next day I was transferred from Billings Clinic to St. Vincent Healthcare due to
having a better and more experienced NICU (when it came to preemies) - just in case.
At 9:42 PM on August 6, 2016 Chase Michael Brano was born weighing 2lb 4oz and 13in long and at 9:44 PM Ryley Elaine Brano was born weighing 1lb 14oz and 13in long.
On August 17, Ryley had to be flown down to Salt Lake City, Utah via help-flight for a life threatening perforated bowel. That night she had her first of three surgeries she would need to correct her bowel. On August 20, Ryley had her second surgery, where they had to remove a total of 6 centimeters of her bowels.
Along with her bowel issues Ryley has had a history of chronic lungs (over inflated lungs, collapsed lungs, pneumothorax, and chylothorax). She has been on three different types of ventilators and we are so close, after almost 7 weeks, to finally getting her extubated. Ryley also has a grade 3 and grade 4 bleed in her little brain that seems to be stable and progressing in a good direction. Ryley was given the "sickest kid in the NICU" award down in SLC - which is not something any parent wants to hear. There were a few times the doctors didn't know whether or not she would make it through the night, but thankfully our little girl has proven time and time again that she is a fighter.
During this time, Kyle stayed in Billings to take care of Chase, who was still in the NICU at St Vincent. After Chase was born the doctors were concerned that he may have meningitis. After multiple failed spinal tap attempts (to be able to retrieve spinal fluid to test for meningitis) they decided to give him a full course of antibiotics just in case. Chase eventually had developed bilateral inguinal hernias, that he will have to have surgery on to correct before he goes home. One night, Chase became very jittery and the next day they did an EEG to confirm he was having seizers. After a phone consult with a neurologist down in SLC they finally got him on anti-seizer medicine to help stop them. He continued to get better (with few to no seizers) and grow, and was even extubated and beginning to breath with less and less ventilation until 9/14/16 when he started acting sick and not his happy little self. During his routine head ultrasound on Friday, August 16, 2016 we found out that his ventricles had almost doubled in size. Later that night, Chase was flown via help-flight as well down to Salt Lake to be seen by their neurologists and neurosurgeons. It was not a life threatening flight like Ryley's, but he needed to be seen sooner rather than later so it wouldn't cause permanent brain damage. That night we had our kids together for the first time in almost a month, not under the circumstances that we would like, but our family was together in one place. The waiting game is one of the hardest parts of being a NICU parent, and the next two days with Chase were just that, waiting. After doing an MRI we were able to confirm that his ventricles were large, but we needed to make sure that he did not have an infection before they were able to do anything. Because the only way to check for meningitis is through spinal fluid, they were forced to do a "tap" on his ventricles on 9/20/16. They had to stick a small needle through his brain to his ventricles and pull back enough spinal fluid to be able to test it, as well as take some of the swelling off of his brain. They had taken out 18cc of spinal fluid and were able to determine that he did have some sort of infection, so he will continue to be on antibiotics. If his ventricles continue to grow, they will have to put in a reservoir in his brain to be able to drain the fluid and possibly a shunt before he goes home.
Our kids continue to fight and prove to everyone that their drive and determination to go home happy and healthy is greater than anyone I have ever met. This entire process has been a full on roller coaster and we are not done yet. We have at least another two months down in SLC before we can even think about going back to Montana, but we are very hopeful that we will be home soon. Our little family cannot thank everyone enough for all of their love and support through this journey.
◦ Love the Branos
I am being brave today and asking for your help for my brother and sister in law and my first niece and nephew..
We need help financially and massive amounts of prayer. LOTS of prayers for babies but also for momma and daddy to stay strong through this. A lot of you know and Im sure a lot of you don't know the true, real, raw, details of what my family has been through this past month.
I am devastated to see my brother and sister in law have to go through this. Having the twins premature is one thing but being airflighted to Salt Lake is another. Of course momma has to be there..but shouldn't dad be able to as well. Not only is Ashley taking this time off of work.. my brother has to stay home to work to provide financially for ALL the medical expenses as well as the unknowns of what the future is going to bring. It saddens my heart that he wont be able to be at their bedside every day.
I wanted to put this together in the hops of raising money so my brother can fly every weekend to see his babies and his wife..and help relieve this HUGE burden of stress that we all know finances do.
Im asking for your help to donate anything your heart feels you can give. No amount is to small. If you cannot donate please SHARE this. My HOPE and goal is to raise 40K that will be just a fraction of what my family is going to need to release the burden of debt.
Please share my mission with your friends and family.
Love,
Morgan
From Ashley:
At 2:00 AM on August 1, 2016 Kyle and I had the scare of a lifetime. At only 24 weeks my water had broke. We went into the hospital to confirm it really was my water that had broke, but I wasn't actually in labor. They decided to admit me and keep me on bed rest for as long as possible to keep our little babies in. The next day I was transferred from Billings Clinic to St. Vincent Healthcare due to
having a better and more experienced NICU (when it came to preemies) - just in case.
At 9:42 PM on August 6, 2016 Chase Michael Brano was born weighing 2lb 4oz and 13in long and at 9:44 PM Ryley Elaine Brano was born weighing 1lb 14oz and 13in long.
On August 17, Ryley had to be flown down to Salt Lake City, Utah via help-flight for a life threatening perforated bowel. That night she had her first of three surgeries she would need to correct her bowel. On August 20, Ryley had her second surgery, where they had to remove a total of 6 centimeters of her bowels.
Along with her bowel issues Ryley has had a history of chronic lungs (over inflated lungs, collapsed lungs, pneumothorax, and chylothorax). She has been on three different types of ventilators and we are so close, after almost 7 weeks, to finally getting her extubated. Ryley also has a grade 3 and grade 4 bleed in her little brain that seems to be stable and progressing in a good direction. Ryley was given the "sickest kid in the NICU" award down in SLC - which is not something any parent wants to hear. There were a few times the doctors didn't know whether or not she would make it through the night, but thankfully our little girl has proven time and time again that she is a fighter.
During this time, Kyle stayed in Billings to take care of Chase, who was still in the NICU at St Vincent. After Chase was born the doctors were concerned that he may have meningitis. After multiple failed spinal tap attempts (to be able to retrieve spinal fluid to test for meningitis) they decided to give him a full course of antibiotics just in case. Chase eventually had developed bilateral inguinal hernias, that he will have to have surgery on to correct before he goes home. One night, Chase became very jittery and the next day they did an EEG to confirm he was having seizers. After a phone consult with a neurologist down in SLC they finally got him on anti-seizer medicine to help stop them. He continued to get better (with few to no seizers) and grow, and was even extubated and beginning to breath with less and less ventilation until 9/14/16 when he started acting sick and not his happy little self. During his routine head ultrasound on Friday, August 16, 2016 we found out that his ventricles had almost doubled in size. Later that night, Chase was flown via help-flight as well down to Salt Lake to be seen by their neurologists and neurosurgeons. It was not a life threatening flight like Ryley's, but he needed to be seen sooner rather than later so it wouldn't cause permanent brain damage. That night we had our kids together for the first time in almost a month, not under the circumstances that we would like, but our family was together in one place. The waiting game is one of the hardest parts of being a NICU parent, and the next two days with Chase were just that, waiting. After doing an MRI we were able to confirm that his ventricles were large, but we needed to make sure that he did not have an infection before they were able to do anything. Because the only way to check for meningitis is through spinal fluid, they were forced to do a "tap" on his ventricles on 9/20/16. They had to stick a small needle through his brain to his ventricles and pull back enough spinal fluid to be able to test it, as well as take some of the swelling off of his brain. They had taken out 18cc of spinal fluid and were able to determine that he did have some sort of infection, so he will continue to be on antibiotics. If his ventricles continue to grow, they will have to put in a reservoir in his brain to be able to drain the fluid and possibly a shunt before he goes home.
Our kids continue to fight and prove to everyone that their drive and determination to go home happy and healthy is greater than anyone I have ever met. This entire process has been a full on roller coaster and we are not done yet. We have at least another two months down in SLC before we can even think about going back to Montana, but we are very hopeful that we will be home soon. Our little family cannot thank everyone enough for all of their love and support through this journey.
◦ Love the Branos
Organizer and beneficiary
Morgan Crawford
Organizer
Redwood City, CA
Kyle Brano
Beneficiary