We are fundraising for our 12 year old sister Giada, and our mom. Giada has been in the hospital since 1/27/23, and our mom has been with her since, helping in anyway she can. Giada's siblings and family members are visiting as much as possible, so that she is never left alone.

Giada has come through liver failure, abdominal sepsis, necrotic and failing pancreas, and other smaller medical issues since 1/27. She is currently fighting a collapsed lung, and then will need to combat and figure out how to proceed with a Lupus and Rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis and rehab from her hospitalization.

Currently, the hospital bills that we know of are our 30-50,000. Some of that will be covered by health insurance, but some of it will not be. Our mom has also not been able to work as she is staying with Giada. The two youngest siblings who are still at home are being cared for by family various family members also, and visiting their sister Giada as they are able to. All funds raised here will go directly to Giada’s medical costs, or hotel/food costs for our mom.

Giada has always been a high- energy, fun, sweet girl who loves adventure and new experiences! She is always smiling and laughing, and has such a happy spirit.

She has continued to fight through all of these problems as each new one comes up. Her body has been trying to fight off these issues for 6-9 months (doctors best guess) and she has not lost that fighting spirit yet.

We know that with everyone’s continued prayers and support, anything is possible! Giada has not given up yet, and we will not stop fighting for her.

Through all of this, our mom has been there with Giada. She has left a few times to sleep, but has been unable to work at all.

They live in NC, which has different health care than what we are used to in NY, and as such did not have complete health care coverage. My mom has been using her retirement savings to pay for things currently, but that won’t cover everything.

When Giada was admitted to the emergency room, our mom was told that she automatically qualified for certain health insurance, because of the emergency status. Currently, my mom is working through administration issues as now she is being told she makes just barely too much to qualify for this level, so the payments are significantly higher.

We are unsure of what the total bills will be, (between the ambulance rides, ICU, multiple surgeries) or how long Giada will need this level of care, and what will work out with health Insurance. We are hoping to help our mom out with costs of staying with Giada, and costs of not being able to work for 1-4 months.

We (Caleb, Breanna, Katrya, Nathan, Damira, and Mythias) appreciate any and all help! Every little bit helps, even if all you can do is pray with us!

Below we have attempted a brief summary of everything so far, but a lot of it is passed on through 1-2 people, so the medical terms may not be 100%!

UPDATE:

2/18: Doctors removed her intubation, and she was breathing in her own. After some difficulty they placed her on bi-pap to assist with her breathing but not take over for her. With that help and a few position adjustments, her breathing evened out and her HR decreased. She is less sedated than previously and is more aware/slightly interactive.

2/17: Giada stayed stable, with no change in her treatments. Her oxygen levels, hr, and blood pressure stayed stable.

1/27: Our mom took Giada to the emergency room because she was turning yellow. Giada was immediately admitted, and the doctors started testing for many things (RA, Lukemia, HIV, Lupus, large auto immune panel)

Her liver function was very poor when she was admitted, and the doctors were also concerned about her kidneys and gall bladder.

1/29: She had a seizure overnight, and was unresponsive for about 5 minutes. She seemed to be ok afterwards though, after a short recovery period. Her liver was not improving well, with discussions of liver failure. She was also diagnosed with Evan’s syndrome, which is when her body attacks her own red blood cells and platelets.

1/30: AM she was transferred to Levine’s Children Hospital, and has been there since. She received fluids, and a blood transfusion, as well as many different lab panels to assess her organ function.

2/1: Doctors did a liver, kidney, and gall bladder biopsy. They also did a spinal tap to test her spinal fluid, because of the seizure.

The spinal tap came back negative for anything significant in her spinal fluid. Other testing came back positive for Lupus, with the main organ affected being her liver.

She was started on a very high dose of IV prednisalone, to help stop the inflammation.

2/2: She was started on hydroxycloroquine to help treat the Lupus, as well as getting the second IV dose of prednisalone steroid.

Giada had a cardiac work up due to heat rate fluctuations.

2/3-2/5: continued on the meds, still very tired and uncomfortable, but awake. Her only complication was significant constipation and stomach pain.

2/5 Pm: Giada started to show significant fluid build up in her abdomen. Ultrasound showed no bowel perforation. Doctors were concerned about kidney infections or bowel blockage.

2/6 noonish: she was moved to the Pediatric ICU, and doctors used a needle to remove abdominal fluid and try to figure out where the fluid was coming from.

2/6 7pm: The abdominal fluid tested contaminated with fecal matter, the doctors were concerned about her bowels, scheduled immediate abdominal surgery.

she went into surgery about 9pm.

9/6-9/7: she came out of surgery just after midnight. Doctors did not find any bowel perforation, but there was significant infection and fluid build up around all major organs. They removed her appendix, Fluid was removed, she was flushed with antibiotics. A wound drain was placed, her abdomen was left open with a wound cover, as they planned to go back in soon. During this surgery, they discovered her pancreas was severely compromised. They removed all of the necrotic tissue that they could, and flushed it with antibiotics.

At this point, they doctors really didn’t know how to proceed, and scheduled an exam/consult with the adult pancreatic specialists. Giada was left anesthesized and immobilized, with an intubator in.

2/7pm: Giada was still stable, but the doctors put in an additional IV arterial blood line, and increased the amount of red blood cells, platelets, plasma, and nutrients being administered.

2/8: adult pancreas specialists went in and examined her pancreas. Removed more necrotic tissue, removed many blood clots behind the pancreas. Flushed with antibiotics again. Her intestines and abdomen were improving very well. Liver and other organs were still doing ok.

She was started on dialysis to hopefully prevent over working her kidneys, as they were starting to not be able to keep up with the amount of fluids being given IV.

2/9: stayed stable with all of her IV meds, no change

2/10: doctors went into her abdomen again, removed her gall bladder. Flushed and cleaned up the infection again, there was still infection and fluid present, but significantly decreased, and the doctors were happy the progress. They started a J-G tube to administer better nutrients.

Doctors expected her to stay open and intubated for 10-21 days. She needed to stay intubated until her abdomen was closed up, and they were not going to close her abdomen until the infection was clear and her pancreas was significantly improved and stable.

2/11-2/12: they continued the fluids, she was stable. They pushed her abdominal flush out one more day bc she was doing so well.

2/13: the abdomen exam was again improved even more. Doctors were very happy and surprised by the improvements in her kidney, and the infection was 70% gone. Minimal pancreatic necrotic tissue was removed. They said if she continue to improve this much, they might close her up sooner than expected, as early as this week? Once she is closed up, she will stay in the ICU for 1-3 days, then move to the pediatric unit for rehab (which could be 1-3 months), and to develop a plan for managing her lupus. Complications of diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis were discussed but nothing would be known until she woke up and had started treatment.

2/14: she did not have an abdominal flush, but the plan for 2/15 was discussed. They were hoping to go in and flush one more time, check the pancreas, and either close her up completely, or close her up about 80%. Discussed changing her sedation levels and removing her intubation.

2/15: they doctors went into her abdomen again, and were very happy- the infection was almost completely gone, and her pancreas looked good. Other organs had stayed stable. They closed her up about 80%, leaving her wound drain in. They removed her intubation early afternoon.

She took a long time to come out of the sedation, to a level where she passed the tests to remove the intubation. When they did remove the intubation, she could breathe on her own, but it was very labored breathing.

Giada did not seem to be fully aware of what was going on, and seemed very upset/nervous. Her pain meds should have been adequate to prevent any physical pain though.

6pm: She was continuing to have difficulty breathing, even with assistance (Bi-pap?).

Then the doctors said she had collapsed her left lung, and they thought she had aspirated her saliva and developed a mucus plug that then led to the collapse. She was re- intubated.