Heart 2 Heart for Abigail Rose
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Heart2HeartForAbbyKoski
Welcome to Heart 2 Heart for Abigail Rose Koski.
First I must introduce myself; my name is Nicole Jones & I am a friend of the Koski Family. I am from Bolton, Ontario & I grew up with Will Koski. I have had the pleasure of knowing him while he progressed from a young man into the wonderful husband & father he is today. Will & his lovely wife Trisha have 6 amazing children and they are wonderful people, friends and parents. They would stop at nothing to give anything they could to their children.
I have created this space as a safe haven to help relieve some of the Financial Burdens that have suddenly come their way. The money donated would be used to help pay some, hopefully most, of the added costs that are associated with the conditions that Abigail suffers from on her long journey ahead into what we can pray will be a bright future. As we are are all well aware; there are many expenses that are not covered and can be very costly. Please read further for their entire story. I trust you will fall in love with them and their story as much as I have & I hope you find it in your heart 2 help...
Abigail Rose Koski was welcomed into this world on March 17th 2014 in Ontario, Canada. She is the 6th child to Will and Trisha Koski.
On the operating table, as Trisha was being stitched up following a c-section, there was a sudden quietness in the room. Will went to see if the baby was ok and came back to tell Trisha, "She's a cutie." At the moment this precious baby was put next to Trisha's cheek, she knew they had a special baby. The little tongue that came out to taste the air was a give-away to mom that they had been blessed with a little angel, with Down Syndrome. Tears of joy, worry, wonder, fear, etc. came flooding out but with every moment, love filled the air for little miss Abigail Rose.
That day has changed not only one family, but many. Abigail has touched the hearts of family, friends, acquaintances and even those who have never personally met her yet. Her calm demeanor while doing splits in the air brings everyone to laughter! The way her entire face lights up with a smile quickly corrects anyone presenting with a straight, sad or angry face. Recently her voice is one of her favorite entertainments as she chats with those around. She is an absolute joy.
Children with DS have a higher rate of heart defects so it's routine to check their heart. At 1 month old, Abigail went for a routine echo to see that her heart was in good condition, as the doctors suspected. Everyone was shocked when they found that Abigail had AVSD complete (Atrial Ventricular Septal Defect). She would need open heart surgery at 6 months of age. Gulp.
Those months passed all too quickly as the family tried to prepare as much as possible.
On Sept. 17th, when Abigail was exactly 6 months old, Will and Trisha handed their little gem over to the OR nurses, praying for a successful surgery. The hours passed throughout the day and by 10:30 pm, the surgeon came to tell them it went well, overall. They fixed the valves as good as possible but there is still leakage, which she may be able to live perfectly fine with. Because of the leakage though, she will be followed for life to ensure the leakage does not get worse.
A few days post-op, Abigail had a seizure that lasted nearly 5 minutes, stopped by medication. This led to an MRI which revealed she had experienced a stroke at some point (likely during surgery). A Neuro team is now involved as she will be at risk for more seizures now that there is damage in small portions of her brain. She also needs to be on a blood thinner to prevent further strokes due to the leakage/reflux in the valves. During surgery, there had been some damage to her kidneys due to low blood flow...which will hopefully correct itself in time.
Another complication presented itself by day 5 post-op. Chylothorax which is caused by thoracic trauma, creating fluid build up in the outer lining of the lungs. Ugh. This can, and has proven to be a long recovery process.
A couple days passed....and a high fever came on leaving Abigail exhausted and lethargic. Everything was tested and cultured = infection at drain tube site and in the blood. Yikes! On a course of IV antibiotics.
Trisha will never forget Oct. 2nd 2014 after a week of looking at Abigail progressively fight to breath. The weight gain was a flag, the fact that she was using her entire upper body to take each breath was a flag, nose flaring, a panic look in her eyes at times. Trisha held Abigail up to her chest and patted her back. Fluid. She could hear fluid in there and knew, her baby was drowning, which she told the nurse. She went to sleep Oct. 1st, hoping and praying that her baby wakes up the next morning.
At the sound of Abigail moving around a bit that Thur. morning, Trisha got up from the day bed, as she had several times during the night, to make sure her baby was ok. She walked over to check on Abigail who appeared to be trying to get more comfortable in order to breath. She was fighting something. Trisha picked her up only to have her baby try leap out of her arms to get a breath...looking at her mom in freight, and then she passed out in her moms arms. Abigail was shouting out loud that she was drowning in fluid which was preventing her lungs from working properly. The day was a blur with doctors, nurses, ultrasound tech, echo tech and all coming and going which confirmed the fluid build up was definitely there around the heart and lungs. Off she went to get a chest tube put in which is usually a fairly standard procedure. Unfortunately, not with Abigail. When the fluid came out of the lung spaces, her blood pressure plummeted and they nearly lost her again. Luckily, she was surrounded by staff who had her intubated and on a breathing machine within seconds and were able to save her. They decided a drainage tube around the heart was necessary as well. What a scary, emotional and exhausting day.
What was thought to be a 7-10 day stay in the hospital, has extended now much longer. Abigail is still working thru the drainage from chylothorax even after many steps to try stop it. She's been getting nothing in her mouth for 10 days (nutrition via IV) to see if that helps. Lets hope it is resolved soon so she can be back home with her 1 brother, 5 sisters, mom and dad. There's much more to come for this little trooper once she's back home, 100%. Follow her story on facebook at: Believe in Down Syndrome where there are daily updates.
Welcome to Heart 2 Heart for Abigail Rose Koski.
First I must introduce myself; my name is Nicole Jones & I am a friend of the Koski Family. I am from Bolton, Ontario & I grew up with Will Koski. I have had the pleasure of knowing him while he progressed from a young man into the wonderful husband & father he is today. Will & his lovely wife Trisha have 6 amazing children and they are wonderful people, friends and parents. They would stop at nothing to give anything they could to their children.
I have created this space as a safe haven to help relieve some of the Financial Burdens that have suddenly come their way. The money donated would be used to help pay some, hopefully most, of the added costs that are associated with the conditions that Abigail suffers from on her long journey ahead into what we can pray will be a bright future. As we are are all well aware; there are many expenses that are not covered and can be very costly. Please read further for their entire story. I trust you will fall in love with them and their story as much as I have & I hope you find it in your heart 2 help...
Abigail Rose Koski was welcomed into this world on March 17th 2014 in Ontario, Canada. She is the 6th child to Will and Trisha Koski.
On the operating table, as Trisha was being stitched up following a c-section, there was a sudden quietness in the room. Will went to see if the baby was ok and came back to tell Trisha, "She's a cutie." At the moment this precious baby was put next to Trisha's cheek, she knew they had a special baby. The little tongue that came out to taste the air was a give-away to mom that they had been blessed with a little angel, with Down Syndrome. Tears of joy, worry, wonder, fear, etc. came flooding out but with every moment, love filled the air for little miss Abigail Rose.
That day has changed not only one family, but many. Abigail has touched the hearts of family, friends, acquaintances and even those who have never personally met her yet. Her calm demeanor while doing splits in the air brings everyone to laughter! The way her entire face lights up with a smile quickly corrects anyone presenting with a straight, sad or angry face. Recently her voice is one of her favorite entertainments as she chats with those around. She is an absolute joy.
Children with DS have a higher rate of heart defects so it's routine to check their heart. At 1 month old, Abigail went for a routine echo to see that her heart was in good condition, as the doctors suspected. Everyone was shocked when they found that Abigail had AVSD complete (Atrial Ventricular Septal Defect). She would need open heart surgery at 6 months of age. Gulp.
Those months passed all too quickly as the family tried to prepare as much as possible.
On Sept. 17th, when Abigail was exactly 6 months old, Will and Trisha handed their little gem over to the OR nurses, praying for a successful surgery. The hours passed throughout the day and by 10:30 pm, the surgeon came to tell them it went well, overall. They fixed the valves as good as possible but there is still leakage, which she may be able to live perfectly fine with. Because of the leakage though, she will be followed for life to ensure the leakage does not get worse.
A few days post-op, Abigail had a seizure that lasted nearly 5 minutes, stopped by medication. This led to an MRI which revealed she had experienced a stroke at some point (likely during surgery). A Neuro team is now involved as she will be at risk for more seizures now that there is damage in small portions of her brain. She also needs to be on a blood thinner to prevent further strokes due to the leakage/reflux in the valves. During surgery, there had been some damage to her kidneys due to low blood flow...which will hopefully correct itself in time.
Another complication presented itself by day 5 post-op. Chylothorax which is caused by thoracic trauma, creating fluid build up in the outer lining of the lungs. Ugh. This can, and has proven to be a long recovery process.
A couple days passed....and a high fever came on leaving Abigail exhausted and lethargic. Everything was tested and cultured = infection at drain tube site and in the blood. Yikes! On a course of IV antibiotics.
Trisha will never forget Oct. 2nd 2014 after a week of looking at Abigail progressively fight to breath. The weight gain was a flag, the fact that she was using her entire upper body to take each breath was a flag, nose flaring, a panic look in her eyes at times. Trisha held Abigail up to her chest and patted her back. Fluid. She could hear fluid in there and knew, her baby was drowning, which she told the nurse. She went to sleep Oct. 1st, hoping and praying that her baby wakes up the next morning.
At the sound of Abigail moving around a bit that Thur. morning, Trisha got up from the day bed, as she had several times during the night, to make sure her baby was ok. She walked over to check on Abigail who appeared to be trying to get more comfortable in order to breath. She was fighting something. Trisha picked her up only to have her baby try leap out of her arms to get a breath...looking at her mom in freight, and then she passed out in her moms arms. Abigail was shouting out loud that she was drowning in fluid which was preventing her lungs from working properly. The day was a blur with doctors, nurses, ultrasound tech, echo tech and all coming and going which confirmed the fluid build up was definitely there around the heart and lungs. Off she went to get a chest tube put in which is usually a fairly standard procedure. Unfortunately, not with Abigail. When the fluid came out of the lung spaces, her blood pressure plummeted and they nearly lost her again. Luckily, she was surrounded by staff who had her intubated and on a breathing machine within seconds and were able to save her. They decided a drainage tube around the heart was necessary as well. What a scary, emotional and exhausting day.
What was thought to be a 7-10 day stay in the hospital, has extended now much longer. Abigail is still working thru the drainage from chylothorax even after many steps to try stop it. She's been getting nothing in her mouth for 10 days (nutrition via IV) to see if that helps. Lets hope it is resolved soon so she can be back home with her 1 brother, 5 sisters, mom and dad. There's much more to come for this little trooper once she's back home, 100%. Follow her story on facebook at: Believe in Down Syndrome where there are daily updates.
Organizer
Nicole Jones
Organizer
Lisle, ON
