Giving for Griffin Porterfield: Be the Third

“Who is the third who walks always beside

you?

When I count, there are only you and I

together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside

you

Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded

I do not know whether a man or a woman

—But who is that on the other side of you?”

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

Hi everyone, my name is Katie Adams, and I thank you for visiting my GoFundMe page, “Giving for Griffin Porterfield: Be the Third.” Griffin Porterfield is the youngest child of my friends, Kyle and Kaitlynn, and the brother of three other little humans with colossal personalities, Alex (12), Logan (10), and Quinn (8). I met Kyle when I started working at Bradley Tower, where he was our NATCA representative for a time. Kaitlynn mounted an aggressive (and compassionate) campaign to be my friend, and we were instantly simpatico. The Porterfields also brought together the controllers at Bradley by hosting gatherings where all were welcome. When Kyle and Kate moved to Maine seven years ago, Bradley Tower’s loss was Portland Tower’s gain.

Now comes the hard part: On May 2, 2022, Kaitlynn gave birth to Griffin at just 25 weeks of gestation. He weighed 2.1 pounds, or 940 grams, and Kate and Griffin both almost died. Griffin spent more than seven months in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, fighting to be able to breathe on his own. His airway was underdeveloped, and every time he was taken off the ventilator, that airway would collapse. He was ultimately discharged just in time for Thanksgiving, and his homecoming was his family’s only wish for that holiday season. The doctors at the Maine Medical Center in Portland were hopeful that a surgery to shore up the cartilage in his windpipe would allow him to breathe on his own, but that surgery would have to wait until he was older.

Meanwhile, relying on a ventilator and a gastric port, Griffin grew from an adorable baby into the world’s most cheerful toddler. He’s a dynamo, and Kate told me that he has been the “busiest” of her four children at such a young age. His many interests and hobbies include Paw Patrol, the color red, wearing his dad’s hats, puppies and kittens, and playing with his siblings. His family worships the ground his little legs walk on and have nicknamed him Griff or Griffy. Any photo of Griffin is lit up by his sweet little face and king-sized personality. He has managed to speak a few words despite the trach tube, including “dada” “Hi” and “quack.” This kid is undaunted and undeterred by the challenges he has faced in his young life.

And there have been challenges. Kate is a nurse, and her job for the past two years has been caring for her son at a level most of us cannot imagine. The stakes of taking care of a trach baby with a ventilator and a g-tube are literally life and death, and that burden has been Kate’s alone, with Kyle’s emotional support.

On August 12, Griff finally had his surgery performed by an expert surgeon at Maine Medical. After a week of anxious waiting while he lay sedated and intubated, there came the miracle of Griffin breathing on his own for the first time. The road ahead was filled with many new challenges like learning to talk and removing the gastric tube so Griff could also learn to eat, but it felt like the worst was behind them. When Griffin went home, his family cried and smiled and hugged him tight, their love for him incandescent.

Early Thursday morning, August 29, Griff’s breathing sounded labored, and when Kate went to hold him, even in the dark she could see his color was off. Griff then rapidly went into respiratory failure, dying in her arms. Kate performed CPR on her baby and managed to resuscitate him. Later that afternoon, a surgical airway evaluation revealed devastating news: while one of his cartilage grafts was healing perfectly, the second had peeled away. Air was now escaping from the graft site and making his airway collapse.

Griff is now back in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, sedated, intubated, and ventilated. His prognosis is uncertain; another airway evaluation is planned for later this week. It’s possible that with time and rest, the failing graft may heal, but not even his experienced surgeon has seen this outcome before. Griff may need to remain in the hospital into October, and then be sent home with a trach tube again for the winter with the hopes of another surgery in the spring.

The time has come for this family to have help, and I know fellow NATCA members and friends in the wider community will provide it. Kate has missed out on a significant amount of income in the past two years, and Kyle has taken 171 days of leave and is now potentially facing weeks of Leave Without Pay. The family needs money for childcare for the three other kids, groceries, transportation, and medical equipment that may not be fully covered by insurance. We are setting the goal of ten-thousand dollars to make up for past lost income and give the family some cushion for the months ahead. Anything you can give for Griffin and his family is appreciated! At the beginning of this page, I quoted T.S. Eliot’s description of a presence that keeps pace with travelers alone on a hard journey. Let’s remind the Porterfields that they are never alone. Be the third, and the fourth, and the fifth and beyond, walking beside them.