Hannah, Adam, and Gus' Gastroschisis Journey.

*UPDATE: 3-28-2025*

Gus Malcolm has now been in the NICU for 67 days! Gus has a condition called ultra short gut syndrome. This is a result of his extreme case of gastroschisis that we discovered at my 20 week OB appointment. Due to the severity of Gus's condition, he had to have the majority of his bowels removed, leaving him with only 11 cm of viable bowel, including his colon. The typical amount of bowel for a newborn is somewhere around 250 cm of bowel, so we have been told by the surgical team at Children's that Gus has the rarest case of ultra short gut syndrome, in the 1% range of all short gut cases.

Gus loving on daddy and holding his hand. (Taken February 27th)

Gus is receiving all of his nutrition right now from something called IV nutrition/TPN, or total parenteral nutrition, via a PICC line in his arm. This means that Gus cannot drink an entire bottle of my breast milk. Gus can only take about 10 ml of milk a couple times a day, and it is purely for oral stimulation, not nutrition. This IV nutrition is quite literally Gus's lifeline at the moment, and he will need to be on it until he reaches the goal limit to be able to get a bowel transplant, which we hope will be when he is anywhere from 1 to 2 years of age.

Little man has been poked and prodded more in his 2 months of life than I ever have, but he keeps a brave face! (Taken March 10th)

Gus's next major surgery is April 2nd, and they are going in to attempt to reconnect his small bowel and his colon. If that procedure goes well, he will need to be monitored in Children's for at least 8 weeks following the procedure. If it does not go as planned, and the surgical team is not confident that he can be discharged, he will need more evaluation and time at the NICU.

Gus's NG tube that was placed on March 26th.

As of March 26th, Gus had to have an NG tube placed again to drain built up stomach contents. This journey has been extremely tough and very scary, but Gus is constantly surprising us and he keeps exceeding our expectations. Thank you to everyone who has donated, checked in on Adam and I, and/or sent good thoughts and prayers our way. Please continue to keep Gus in your prayers! <3

Cuddles with daddy on February 11th! :)

Gus on March 10th, being cute as ever!

UPDATE: 1-22-2025

Our baby boy 'Gus Malcolm Franco' entered the world at 3:27am January 20th, weighing in at 6 lbs, and 18 inches. He's the sweetest thing we have ever laid our eyes on in our lives.

Gus's journey has just begun though, as he entered the world we figured out that his Gastroschisis is more complex then previously thought. currently Gus has a 'silo' containing his intestines. we have a surgery scheduled for Friday January 24th to remove bowel that is not viable. we have lots of time in the NICU ahead of us. we will update the go fund me as we have more details.

Please keep Gus in your thoughts.

Gus at Methodist hospital before being transported to Children's.

Gus with his 'silo' currently at Childrens Hospital. <3

My name is Adam, and my fiancé's name is Hannah. We are expecting a baby boy in February 2025. Sadly, our baby boy has been diagnosed with the birth defect gastroschisis. We weren't expecting or prepared for this at the beginning of our little man's life. fortunately for him we are here for the fight!

We are going to many doctor's appointments to do our best to stay positive, but the more and more work we miss, the more we feel it at home. Anything and everything helps and is appreciated greatly. We expect to have to use funds for rent due to missed work and doctor's bills.