Hello.

My name is Amy and I am the aunt of Alecia and Brad and the great aunt of sweet baby Ava.

On Friday, February 27th, I received a text that no family member wants to receive: Ava was being airlifted to Fargo. Our sweet little 9-month-old girl was in the fight of her short life. She had accidentally aspirated vomit into her lungs and needed more help than their hospital in Alexandria could provide. Her momma was in the seat next to the pilot as the medical crew was bagging her in the back. She spent the next 6 days in the PICU at Sanford in Fargo, heading home on Wednesday, March 4th.

The following words are from Alecia and Brad:

"On February 26, Ava was just having a normal day. She had a slight cough, but everything else was going okay. Before bed, I put Vicks on her, gave her Tylenol, and propped her up thinking she would get comfy. Nothing was working, so we tried sitting up in the chair with her laying on my chest. It worked for short periods, but every time she woke up just screaming, so I gave her some bottle. Getting her back to sleep seemed to soothe her, so I was just thinking maybe she had a sore throat. We got up the next morning, February 27th, and she was having a little bit of a harder time breathing, so I was just watching it. I gave her a bath thinking maybe the warm water would help her out and back to sleep. She was breathing pretty heavily at this point, so I just decided to be safe and get her an appointment scheduled to check her out. The soonest they had was 1:15, so I said we’ll take it because we were stable.

I got to my mom's house and she heard her and didn’t think she sounded good at all. It had gotten even worse by the time we got there. We changed plans and brought her right to urgent care. They looked at her, checked her oxygen levels, and all was good. Her O2 sat was above 90 and 98 before we left. They gave her a neb treatment and she relaxed really well. They took some X-rays. X-rays were coming back okay, so they just thought maybe some croup. She was given a steroid for croup and with that, they were gonna send us home with a nebulizer because that and the steroid should take care of it, they said. They advised us that if it got any worse, go to the ER.

Thinking positive thoughts this was all going to be fine and work for her, we were on the way to Walmart to pick up her nebulizer prescription. She was very uncomfortable. My mom got her to go to sleep in the meantime. On the way back to Mom's from Walmart, everything took a turn. She projectile vomited. Not knowing what could happen after that, she started getting really pale. We figured we would do the neb again because it was about that time again. While doing that, her lips were turning blue and my sister, who is a nurse, said you should get her in. To the ER we went. By the time we got there, she was struggling so bad.

Everything turned into a bad nightmare that we would never wish upon anyone. I just broke down feeling so helpless. Her oxygen levels got all the way down to about 40. They called in the critical care team and everyone else they needed to get our baby the help she needed. They started with an oxygen mask, drew blood, took more X-rays only to find out they weren’t normal anymore. She had aspirated (which is when you puke and can’t get it all out and you swallow it back into the lungs). They needed to get a breathing tube in and after 8 tries to get a tube in, she was finally stable (this was over like a 3-hour period). The breathing tube was so slippery because of all the vomit coming up while trying to put it in, that if it moved the slightest bit, it wouldn’t work right. Because of this, no one could ever stop holding it. In all this, we were informed that we needed to be flown out by helicopter elsewhere. They looked into Children’s in the cities but no room was available. They found us a place in Fargo at Sanford. I was able to fly along but had to sit up front so could not see my baby at all to see what was happening. Just one check-in with the headset worked and they said she was stable and doing well. We came to find out when we landed the automatic ventilation had stopped working halfway through the flight and they had to do it manually. As we were rushing into the hospital, they directed us where to go and all the help was there waiting for us ready to get everything switched over. We were so grateful to be stable in really good hands. With lots of blood draws and an X-ray here, we found out she had two viral infections, human metapneumovirus and parainfluenza, and also pneumonia from the aspiration. Poor girl had been through so much in just a short time, but the day seemed like a lifetime to us, a day we never want to relive."

Brad and Alecia are starting to get the bills for this medical nightmare. While much of the big items were covered by insurance, some of it was not and the smaller charges still added up. In addition to medical bills, they were staying in a hotel in Fargo with their 2-year-old Ace.

Any donation would be very much appreciated. It's never easy to ask for help. The bills are due and they are being contacted to set up payment arrangements.

Baby Ava is now 11 months old and is back to her adorable self. She's crawling everywhere and pulling herself up. We are so thankful for the prayers that were offered for this sweet little family.