Hi, my name is Alicia and I'm fundraising for my granddaughter Amelia.

Amelia Jean is my beautiful granddaughter. She is the daughter of my son Andrew Bittner and his girlfriend Ashley Staten. Ashley had a relatively easy pregnancy and delivered our beautiful girl on 9/22. Other than Amelia being a little jaundice there were no complications and they went home on 9/24. Amelia was an easy baby for the most part. A little fussy with eating and did like to be held a lot (but what baby wouldn’t?). Amelia was 7lb 7oz when she was born and lost about a pound by her initial pediatrician visit at one week. Her pediatrician wanted to make sure she started gaining weight but other than that she was doing great. By her next visit she had gained back to 6lb 14oz and she was by all accounts doing well. When Amelia was 1 month old Ashley and Andrew noticed she was not focusing with her eyes like she was doing previously. Ashley wanted to discuss this with the pediatrician and when she went to the doctor, he did an examination of Amelia, and he was concerned about her eyes not focusing and he also measured her head circumference. Her head was slightly larger than it should be for a 1-month-old and where her soft spot was it was bulging a bit. These were warning signs of an issue, and he encouraged Ashley to take Amelia to the ER at Akron Children’s Hospital. Ashley immediately took Amelia to the hospital. At Children’s they did a CT scan. The neurosurgeon determined there was fluid in her brain (Hydrocephalus). Emergency surgery was performed to place a tube in Amelia’s brain to drain the excess fluid and relieve the pressure. This was the first of Amelia’s brain surgeries. This tube drained the fluid externally into a bag so the doctors could monitor how much fluid was being removed and they could manually adjust the pressure. This happened on 10/25. During the CT scan they did see a shadow and thought maybe Amelia had a tumor. This required an MRI and on 10/26 she had an MRI. Thank GOD there was no tumor. However, what they were seeing was old blood in her brain. The surgeon said there was no way to determine the cause of the trauma and that sometimes it just happens. They call this birth trauma. 1-2 babies out of every 1000 get Hydrocephalus. It can be caused by an infection, trauma, genetics, or a variety of other things. It can just happen! Now armed with our diagnosis we had to move on to the next phase which was to put a shunt in Amelia’s brain to drain and regulate the fluid and a tube to drain the fluid into her abdomen. Her second brain surgery was 10/27. The surgery was a success and now our girl has a chance of full recovery. She was sent home from the hospital on 10/28., just one day after brain surgery. Modern medicine is AMAZING. We had instructions on cleaning her head wound and were advised just treat her like you would any other 1 month old! We will just be checking to see if she is hitting her milestones. Current milestones include her focusing when looking at you and socially smiling. Other things to watch for are her eating, sleeping and weight gain. Just basic baby things . As she gets a bit older, some of the other milestones to watch for include rolling over, pushing up and crawling.

Amelia will require visits to the neurosurgeon after two weeks, then every 3 months for the first year and finally yearly after that. She will require additional surgeries as she grows to replace the shunt, valve, and drain. There is also a chance of the drain clogging which would require additional emergency surgeries. Ashley and Andrew are very private and have not posted about this on social media. As Amelia's grandmother I want to help in any way I can. The expense for the stay in the PICU and multiple brain surgeries is going to be unthinkable. I’m coming to everyone asking for any help you can provide financially. If you are unable to help financially, please keep our girl in your thoughts and prayers. We are praying for a full recovery and that she meets or exceeds all her milestones. Please pray for comfort and peace for Ashley and Andrew. This is unbearably stressful on anyone but especially for first time parents who are just trying to navigate through all this. Amelia is my first grandchild, and she is the light of my life. We will keep everyone updated on how she is doing. Heartfelt thanks from me, Amelia, and her family. We love you and appreciate you.