Finley's Fight Against CDH

Jennifer Matozzo is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Celeste Higgins.

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I am helping to raise money for my sister-in-law, Celeste, and her husband Jimmy. Their baby girl, Finley Cate, was born with Congential Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). This means that there was a hole in her diaphragm which allowed the abdominal organs to migrate up into her chest, compressing her lungs and not allowing them to develop properly. Finley was born on April 27th at Shands Hospital in Gainsville, FL - where they specialize in CDH. She had a very rough start, but is a little warrior! She was on 2 runs of ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a lung and heart bypass machine that oxygenates the blood outside of body) for a total of 33 days. She had her repair done at 15 days old, while on ECMO, to put her organs back in place and repair her diaphragm.

Finley still remains in the Neonatal Intensive Care and is headed in the right direction, but still has a long road ahead. She is one tough baby girl! Finley has an older sister and two older twin brothers that can't wait to have her home.

This has been a significant financial hardship for Celeste and Jimmy and their family. Gainesville is 3 hours from their home, so they have been away from home for the past two months, and will be until Finley can come home. Celeste and Jimmy would never ask for help, so I am asking for them. So many of you have asked me what you can do to help. Any donations would be greatly appreciated. We are all so very thankful for all of your prayers and support.
Thank you,
Jenn