Help Emmanuel's Family Through Medical Crisis

Emmanuel’s story- Emmanuel is my sweet 10-month-old baby. He has been in the Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital from the day he was born, on January 12, 2024, to the present. He is chronically ill and has multiple diagnosis. The most significant of them, a bilateral diaphragmatic hernia, has an extremely poor prognosis. He was very likely to die in the womb, and extremely likely to die upon birth. His is a true miracle. But his journey has been full of hardships. His conditions cause acute respiratory distress and agitation when he gets really sick. He’s had three surgeries and many ups and downs in his recoveries. One of his surgeries was to place a tracheostomy (breathing tube on his throat) and he’s currently on a mechanical ventilator. In these last 10 months he has been close to going home on a at least three occasions, but he was held back by infections he has caught. Last month, on October 15th he was finally discharged from the hospital. He was home for a few hours before he started running a fever and working harder to breath. He was re-admitted that same day. By the time we made it to the hospital, he was in a severe crisis. Once again, my baby was fighting for his life. He had to be heavily sedated to keep him alive. It took him a whole month to come out of this one. A few days ago, I saw him smile again for the first time since his re-hospitalization. He is feeling better again and has been the sweetest baby. He has been calm, smiling a lot, and has been enjoying play time. He loves to pull on things and likes to help me flip the pages of the books I read to him. He has to finish his antibiotics treatment next week and then he has one more planned procedure to study his lungs and heart the week after Thanksgiving. As of now, it is the doctors’ goal to get him home by Christmas.

Our Struggles- A lot of people use the analogy of a storm to refer to life hardships. I think a storm falls short when thinking about what we have been through for the past 10 months. It feels more like a war. My entire family has been hit in so many ways and we have all suffered a lot. We have had to battle anxiety, stress, fatigue, and mental and physical exhaustion every day. It is our faith in God which has sustained us.

It feels like a war because on top of my baby’s illness we have had many other troubles. Everything started breaking down in our home. First our microwave, then the dryer, then the fridge. Then came Hurricane Beryl and stripped off a significant amount of shingles from our old roof. We were approved for a full roof replacement but haven’t been able to do it because our deductible is 9k. The last blow was our family vehicle. After leaving us stranded in dangerous and stressful situations on the freeway on at least three occasions, our vehicle was finally deemed “not worthy of investing more money on it”. We had no choice but to get a car loan. These may seem like simple things, but when your cup is already full, anything extra pushes you over the edge.

It is from these extreme circumstances that we are reaching out for help. I’m a teacher and my husband is a welder. We’re able to make ends meet when both of us are working. I went back to work after the 8 week recovery period from the C-section. Up until Emmanuel’s re-hospitalization, my husband and I took turns going to the hospital in the afternoons after work. My mom stayed with him during the day. My mom quit her job 5 years ago to help me take care of my kids. She is my paid caregiver. Both my husband and I have been out of paid leave long ago. His job is also on reduced hours because of the holidays. My salary will be recalculated to account for the contracted days I didn’t work. I will take a pay cut when I go back to work after the holidays. In these next three months we will lose 60% of our income. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law moved in with us to help us take care of the kids at home. We have 5 big people in our home and 3 little ones. Our expenses have only increased all around.

I don’t know if we’re going to meet our goal, but this is what we need to make it through these next three months. I place my needs in the hands of the Lord and I’ll take whatever he wants to give us. I have faith in him, and I have faith in people, for we are made in his image and likeness. Thank you in advance for whatever help you can provide. May God bless you and your loved ones.