Help bring baby Esme home - International medical transfer

My name is Karine, and I was lucky enough to witness, baby Esmeralda be born in my role as Cat and Dan’s Doula. I have prepared this GoFundMe as a way to support Cat & Dan as they deal with a medical emergency involving their 13 month old daughter who was admitted to the paediatric ICU on a ventilator abroad.

Cat and Esme were visiting Dan’s family in Chili. On their flight from Chile to Toronto, every parents worst nightmare occurred. Esme went into sudden respiratory distress, necessitating the airplane to do an emergency medical landing in Costa Rica. She was then transferred to a children’s Hospital where she was admitted to the ICU and was put on a ventilator to support her breathing and to keep her alive. Dan was in Canada when this occurred. He took a same-day flight to Costa Rica to be with his life-partner, Cat, and baby.

Esme has been on a ventilator to keep her breathing for three days now. Doctors in Costa Rica were able to make contact with ICU physicians at our local Children’s Hospital here in Ottawa Canada. Emergency medical air transfer for an intubated patient arrangements are being made so that they can be closer to their home and their family.

I have created this GoFundMe me as a way to help support Cat and Dan with any unexpected expenses related to travel, medical expenses, loss of income, and anything else they may need to help support their child in this stressful time.

Thank you for your kindness & generosity. your prayers for Esme’s healing are appreciated.

**** UPDATE Feb 15, @15h00 ****

The Children’s hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)

has accepted the emergency medical transfer. The Challenge now is to find a specialized physician and nurse capable of accompanying Esme in the air ambulance. The insurance Company is doing a great job looking for such providers to do the air transfer. Furthermore, it appears only one parent can accompany Esme in the air ambulance. Meaning that the other parent needs to fly home in a commercial plane. Another unplanned expense.

***** UPDATE Feb 15, 21:30 ******

An air ambulance with the appropriate medical staff (physician & nurse) have been found. Transfer is booked for Monday (after the huge snow storm passes in Ottawa). Continue your prayers.

**** UPDATE Feb 16 @15:45 *****

Esme, Cat & Dan will be boarding the air ambulance momentarily as they make their way to the CHEO paediatric intensive care unit. Safe travels ! ✈️

****** UPDATE Feb 17 @ 06:00 ******

Esme has made it to CHEO via air ambulance from Costa Rica Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

***** UPDATE Feb 17 @22h00 *****

Esme is being cared for in the PICU. This afternoon they were able to remove her from the ventilator and place her on CPAP instead. Further complications arose however, being off of the ventilator is a HUGE win for today ❤️‍ keep those prayers going.

***** UPDATE Feb 18 @09:00 *****

Esme had a stable night. She is such a little fighter!! Dan on the other hand received news that his time away from work isn’t being paid. Cat is still on maternity leave. Please continue with your generosity and prayers. It’s amazing to see so many people come together to support this family so that they can focus solely on baby Esme. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

***** UPDATE FEB 18 @20:15 *****

Esme had many milestones today & some amazing signs of progress ! She finally opened her eyes & was able to slowly be weaned off of oxygen. There’s still a long road to recovery but she’s fighting beautifully!

***** UPDATE Feb 19 @ 14:00 ******

“Esme is getting better.

Today she is fully off of oxygen supports, and the antibiotics and steroids are doing their work for a serious bacterial respiratory infection. The biggest hurdle right now is the withdrawal from all the medications and narcotics on her tiny body. She is miserable, but she is awake now, we can hold her in our arms, and these are manageable problems we can take on together. She will be graduating out of the ICU later today”

- Cat

❤️‍

***** UPDATE FEB 22 @13h00 *****

Esme was going much better however she took a little bit of a turn in the last few days as she started to fight secondary infections. Keep Esme and her parents in your prayers. They’re not out of the woods yet.