Frank & Helen’s Surrogacy Journey

Hi! My name is Cassie, and I am starting this fundraiser on behalf of my brother and sister-in-law, Frank & Helen Caruso. Frank & Helen are pursuing surrogacy for their future second child after experiencing some hardship after their first born, Amelia, and would love the help of friends and family on this journey.

Almost 5 years ago on July 15th 2018, Helen gave birth to our beautiful Amelia. By the grace of God, Amelia is a healthy, happy, free spirited, almost 5 year old and the biggest blessing to happen to our family. Unfortunately though, upon her delivery, unforeseen circumstances took place, leaving Helen unable to bear-children herself. For those who know Helen personally, you would know that she’s always wanted to be mom.. to multiple children. She and Frankie both are suffering daily with the emotional turmoil that comes with not being able to create the family they have always dreamed of, as natural as they would like to.

Helen had a healthy and “normal” pregnancy. She learned she was pregnant November 16th, 2017 on her fathers birthday. Followed by her first ultrasound December 14th, 2017. Helen carried beautifully, worked throughout her entire pregnancy, was active, and had virtually no red flags. She labored the entire weekend of July 15th, and did it with ease. That is until late evening of July 15th, when she was told she needed to go for an emergency c-section.

I remember us all talking and debating whether or not Amelia would be born the 15th or now the 16th since it was, at that point, close to 11:45pm. The surgeon overhears us and immediately says “oh no, she’ll be here tonight” and instead of us all taking that as a positive, we kind of had an off feeling about it— but she’s the surgeon! What do we know? Within 10 minutes Frankie comes out to let us know baby girl was born! Completely healthy! We were so excited. A few minutes after that announcement, he comes out to us with not so great news— Helen was bleeding, a lot. He basically told us that the surgeon accidentally “nicked” her cervix but that sometimes it happens and they’re doing what they can to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, after three entirely different treatments; a suture, a balloon stent, and another j-suture, they could not get the hemorrhaging to stop. This resulted in Helen having to get a hysterectomy, along with 3 full body blood transfusions and years of treatment.

As any of you can imagine, this was just absolutely devastating news. She carried for 9 months completely healthy, felt amazing, had positive prenatal appointments, never a single red flag. She ultimately suffered by the hands of a neglectful, over-worked, impatient surgeon that took away her ability to ever carry any more children herself.

With this all said, she was lucky enough to be able to keep her ovaries and down the line go through the process of freezing her eggs and ultimately allowing her the option of surrogacy. We are so so grateful for this but as many of you do or do not know, surrogacy and the IVF process is so extremely expensive. This is where we would love the help of our friends and family so we can get Helen and Frankie to start the surrogacy journey, giving Amelia the sibling she’s been asking for. Prayers are just as powerful and helpful! Thank you to all of you for reading, supporting and sharing.