We are Jess and John Sullivan. In the Spring of 2019, Jess was lucky enough to get pregnant. In her 12th week we got the horrible news that our baby no longer had a heartbeat and that Jess was going to miscarry. At the time, Roe v. Wade was still active and we were able to receive proper medical care so that Jess might be able to conceive again. We have since moved to Austin and tried to conceive for over a year but were unsuccessful, so we sought out the help of fertility specialists.

We have spent the last 3 years in and out of fertility appointments and were told we only had a ~15% chance of ever conceiving again. As many of you can imagine, creating a family is one of the top priorities in our lives, and we have thus poured an endless amount of time, energy, effort and money into making it a reality. Our miracle happed in July of 2024; Jess finally became pregnant. Our hopes and prayers had finally been answered and we were going to have a baby boy! Not only was Jess pregnant, but all of the preliminary genetic testing indicated that our baby boy was in perfect health! At 19 weeks in, we believed we had passed all of the precarious stages of pregnancy where well-known issues present themselves, and that we would not have a repeat of the prior pregnancy. We began picking out a crib, cleaning out the baby room and planning our future.

Then the unimaginable happened. We were out to breakfast on a beautiful Saturday (October 26, 2024) and Jess began to feel that something was very wrong. We rushed to the closest hospital and were told that we were going to lose our baby boy.

Jess had a medical anomaly called cervical insufficiency and there was no way to save him. Being at a smaller hospital without the care she needed, we were emergency transferred via ambulance to the Maternal Fetal Medicine Ward at Seton. Our dreams were crushed as we were faced with the worst possible outcome and no path through.

We asked what our choices were to make sure that our precious boy didn't suffer and that Jess would be ok. We were shocked upon hearing that there were no choices due to Texas' new woman's reproductive laws and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Our baby boy still had a heartbeat and was over 6 weeks old, so there was nothing more the doctors could do but wait and let nature run its course. Jess laid in bed for 10 hours through contractions until her water finally broke. She gave birth to our son and held him while he passed away. As if holding your dying son is not traumatic enough, Jess immediately hemorrhaged from a placenta that did not detach, she was rushed into an emergency D&C that took 5 times longer than expected due to blood loss and complications.

The damage was done, not only did we lose our beautiful son, but Jess had been so emotionally and physically traumatized. We figured our dreams of becoming parents were over, given how difficult conceiving has been and our ages. However, we discovered that with an TAC procedure and fertility treatments we can have a shot at fulfilling our dream of becoming parents! 

As you might imagine surgeries are not cheap and the TAC procedure is not fully covered by our Insurance. We have rearranged our budget and have begun to save in earnest, given the time frame and our ages we alone will not be able to reach our saving goal in a reasonable amount of time. We are asking you all to help fulfill our dream and allow us one final shot at becoming parents. We have never wanted anything more in our lives! Any help is greatly appreciated!