Hello friends,

My name is Josh Buesching, and along with my wife, Laura, would like to share a brief story of our daughter, Leah Trinhity Buesching. You see, we found out in January 2021 that our little baby was sick and would need a lot of help in order to survive. Diagnosed with lymphatic and vascular malformations all down her right side, Leah also has pleural effusion and hydrops. Basically, the growths were causing fluid to build up in that right lung.

We’ve had many trips to many different medical specialists and felt comfortable with the team at Cincinnati Children’s for all Leah’s needs. On April 19th, we had our 34-week checkup and tests. The medical team concluded that from the MRI, Leah’s right lung wasn’t expanded at all due to the fluid buildup. They offered a few options on what they could do and that we settled on having a shunt put into her chest in utero to release that fluid and steroids to help her lung grow. They were certain that without this procedure, with the way her lungs looked, she wouldn’t live but mere hours.

We drove home that evening, prepared to get ready to relocate to Cincinnati. Laura thought her water broke late that evening and we headed to the local hospital. Our high-risk prenatal doc made the call to admit, confirming that the water was indeed broke. The doc couldn’t send her via ambulance because it was too long of a drive and all chopper flights were cancelled because of the freak snowstorm that blew in that day. We had to wait it out.

On Wednesday, the high-risk doctor came in with news that Laura’s labs came back, and she had developed HELLP syndrome and pre-eclampsia. Due to these issues, they had to deliver the baby that day and would schedule the c-section.

The operation was a success and Leah was born at 1441 in the afternoon. She let out several cries and some gurgles before being taken to the other operating room where they could assess and help her with her condition. I can’t tell you how good it was to hear those cries of life, knowing that just 48 hours earlier we were told she would not make it. Leah was stabilized enough for transport the following day and was airlifted to Cincinnati Children’s hospital.

Leah is a fighter! In just the few short weeks being alive, she has transitioned from a ventilator assisted breathing tube, to high flow air. She has been weaned off a ton of support meds and is breathing on her own. She started her sirolimus medication to shrink those malformations. Doctors are confident she has CLOVES syndrome and will be needing constant medication and treatment for the rest of her life.

We could not have gotten this far without your love, support, and prayers. We want those all to continue but we have another support request. The medical and relocation bills are building up and we would like those who can, to donate to this GoFundMe in order to help us get Leah the care she needs going forward.

Thank you again for all your support! It means so much to us to know you all have our back with continued prayers and well wishes.

~The Bueschings

Josh, Laura, and sweet baby Leah