Help Jamillah & Luna Stay Strong for Starlyn’s Healing

Jamillah is one of the most kind, generous, and considerate humans on this planet. In times of difficulty, struggle, or joy Jamillah reaches out and connects with and supports you. She gives as a wife, mother, daughter, friend, colleague, community leader, Girl Scout leader, entrepreneur, and more.

Friends, this is her time of struggle. She needs our connection and support.

Jamillah's husband and life partner Starlyn is battling a serious medical condition. (recent updates below).

In October, Starlyn was admitted to Tufts Medical Center in Boston—2 hours from our home—and he has been there ever since, fighting for his life. On March 1st, he received the gift of a new heart, and while the family is so grateful he made it through surgery, the battle is far from over. What was thought would be a short recovery has unfolded into a long, complex journey filled with physical setbacks and now a heavy emotional toll.

Starlyn was placed on ECMO to support his heart and lungs, faced acute kidney failure requiring dialysis, received a tracheostomy, and is now experiencing frightening, unexplained seizures. He spent weeks asleep and is voiceless, unable to communicate, and now that he’s awake, he’s in constant pain—physically and emotionally. We don’t know what tomorrow brings, but we know he needs his family by his side to help him navigate this painful, uncertain road.

Starlyn not just fighting for himself—he’s fighting to get home to his 3-year-old daughter, Luna, his best friend, who sends him video messages every day and prays for her daddy’s healing. Their daughter Luna misses her dad.

Jamillah is consistently going above and beyond - holding her daughter's world together as the provider, working her tail off full time and getting Luna into a great preschool environment to thrive. She is raising her daughter while working constantly. Jamillah is excelling at her commitments to her community and never lets us down - from Girl Scouting to signing up almost 10,000 residents for their library card. All this while she drives back and forth from Boston constantly to be by Starlyn's side.

The reality is, this is unsustainable at this time. Jamillah has no PTO left from months of caring for others - for the beautiful and smart toddler through a rough preschool-sick winter (parents know!) and being there for Starlyn through every procedure and crisis. From now on, every moment Jamillah spends caring for Starlyn or Luna it is time unpaid from work. Family helps as much as they can, but this is where they need help. Friends, it is time to do our work to reach out and hold up Jamillah, Starlyn, and Luna.

Your prayers, encouragement, and support have held up this beautiful loving family during some of their darkest moments. Every share, donation, and message has been a reminder that they are not alone, and they are deeply grateful. Please make a donation to support this family. Funds will be used to pay expenses, transportation, and anything Starlyn may need for his care and comfort during this critical time.

The family appreciates your outpouring of support! Suggestions were made for additional resources and we’d like to share the outcomes:

PFML for Jamillah: While this is a super helpful program, Jamillah works for the City of Springfield. The City of Springfield has OPTED OUT OF PFML, so it is not available to her.

Assistance for Starlyn: Starlyn is ineligible for assistance and has been denied multiple times from multiple agencies. Because Jamillah has worked 2-3 jobs to sustain their family, they no longer qualify for support that way.

Thanks for these ideas as the family works through this hard time. Please continue to donate, share, pray, and lift up!

Update 4/9

A lot of y'all are asking for updates & while my first instinct is to apologize for not staying on top of updating y'all more frequently, I can't. These past few weeks have been hell and scary, and frustrating and overwhelming and I honestly just didn't have it in me to share tough things that I didn't have answers for and could not handle questions about. Star's mom & I have been back and forth to Boston more times than we can count and we have been celebrating little wins as we creep slowly toward this recovery finish line, but it has seemed with every little win, there is a setback and every time I come on here to share a win- within the day there is a setback and that gets tough to handle.

So here's what's been going on...

Star underwent his tracheostomy, and that surgery went fine, he also got a more permanent dialysis line put in as well to support his kidneys. He had to be back on ECMO for lung support for a bit but has since been taken back off completely for both heart & lungs. (That's a win.) The thought is usually that once the trach is in, the healing goes a bit quicker, but that hasn't been the case. It's been slow & grueling, and painful for him-especially with no voice.

He was able to wake up for a few days, and we thought we had turned a corner, but over the last week or so, Star started experiencing unexplained seizures. This threw everyone for a curveball because he seemed to be doing well otherwise. With medication, they seemed to be kept at bay, but it wasn't without causing a lot of fear & pain for Star. This week has been the turning point for our journey. He's scared. He can't move on his own much right now & is starting PT to gain his strength back. But with no voice, it's important that I'm there with him to advocate for the needs that might go unseen or noticed. A few that I've caught and fought for that turned out to be a big deal. His mother and I are here constantly to help support him so while he's awake he doesn't feel alone.

We had two really good days though. Two really good days. Star was able to be moved from his bed to a recliner in a seated position where he stayed for almost the entire day and started with some small exercises to help his legs. And just when we thought that was the big win, he spent yesterday off of the ventilator breathing on his own with just some oxygen through his trach all day! Woohoo! Major win!! All the while smiling and watching cooking competition shows on TV.

But just when I wanted to share with y'all how great he was doing after those two awesome days, I got a phone call at 8am this morning saying he had to go into emergency surgery for severe abdomen pain & low BP. I was getting ready to walk back across the street to see him but was forced to consent to a bunch of things and wait... You see why I don't ever want to say anything?

I just got the call he made it out of surgery ok- but they couldn't find the root cause of the issue. He will likely be sleeping the rest of the day but I'll go in and check on him before heading home for the night.

Please continue to pray for Starlyn as we are now seeing this will be a longer battle to fight with curveballs left & right. And please try to understand, I know y'all want updates- but I just want more than two good days to string together all while trying to keep everything else afloat. Only sharing the tough stuff gets hard- But let's celebrate the wins we have and keep rooting our guy on! #NovaHeart #StarlynStrong

Update 3/19

Good afternoon y’all. I know a lot of you have been waiting for an update but after the crazy, scary, emotional week we had- I was happy that things were quiet for a few days.

Some wins this week: we got to see our guy with his eyes open for a little bit when they lowered his sedation to do some testing & Luna was able to talk to him on FaceTime for a minute. I know he heard us because we kinda spiked his blood pressure whoops! He is still mostly kept sleeping & comfortable but I spent time with him yesterday “awake” and I know he knew I was there. He even shook his head “yes” when I asked if he knew we loved him.

Star is doing well & making strides in his progress, but we are still in an uphill battle to our ultimate goal. His heart looks good & is doing what it needs to which is great news! After a surgery last week to repair his lung he was placed back on ECMO to support, both, his heart & lungs, but has since been able to come off the support for his heart

However, he is still receiving dialysis for his kidneys & support for his lungs through intubation & ECMO and being intubated for long periods of time can cause complications of its own. Because of this, he will be undergoing a tracheostomy on Friday morning. I know it sounds scary, but I’ve been assured by medical staff and witnessed our fellow transplant brother undergo this surgery and it actually help with recovery. Once the trach is placed and after some recovery time, the team will be able to wake him up more and more and work on him breathing independently- but again, slowly over the course of a couple weeks.

Y’all have been holding him down strong in the prayer department & as always it is appreciated.

I ask you keep doing your thing and throw in a few extra prayers for our girl Luna if you have a chance. She has been such a trooper through this whole thing but I know she misses her best friend. We make him daily videos and we still include him in our prayers but we all know nothing compares to the real thing. Getting to see him briefly on FaceTime made her whole day. We thought we would just be calling to control his dreams and tell him to think about cheeseburgers & French fries, but getting to see his eyes open was 10xs better. I explained to her she would see tubes to help Daddy breathe and to not be scared. She said he looked like an elephant! God has truly blessed us with such a resilient, pure hearted & funny little girl that I know Star is fighting hard to get back to. I’m grateful for y’all covering down on her too.

I will do my best to give you an update on Friday to let you know he’s ok so be on the lookout for a status. If I’m not posting anything, then things are just quiet and slowly progressing forward. Thanks for hanging in there with me, being thoughtful & patient. All the love #NovaHeart #StarlynStrong

Update 3/11

Yesterday was by far the hardest day for me during this whole process & I broke down in tears from the time I dropped Luna off to school to the time I picked her up. (And I only stopped because I refuse to cry in front of her #MomLife) 10 hours of waiting for a 4 hour surgery to be completed with complications & setbacks after setbacks. I went to bed with a pounding migraine from all the tears- but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5) #ANDDID

Star’s doing much better today but recovery is going to take a LOT longer than any of us anticipated and things do keep changing by the hour. It’s not anticipated he will be awake for a minimum of another week and, again, that can change as his body’s needs change as well. (I know I know ☹️) It is normal for people to take longer to be woken up, it’s just hard when you’re waiting on someone you know or love. His new heart is working great, but his other major organs (lungs & kidneys) took a hit during surgery and he needs more support from external machines right now while he heals. (You can google ecmo & dialysis if you’re interested.)

Theres no doubt Star’s positive trajectory overnight was an act of God. I truly believe that He is hearing our prayers because we are gathered together uplifting Starlyn in every moment of the day. (Matthew 18:20) I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for standing in this enormous gap with us.

This won’t be a quick process but I am finding comfort in patience & prayer and I ask you join me in this because Allah (God) is truly with those who are patient. (2:153)

That’s all I’ve got right now. Seeing him today & getting some positive updates has brought me such a sense of relief. And as a dear friend told me, I’m just going to live in the moment & in the hours and day by day until we get through this.

And I’m thanking those Dominican genes for quick hair growth & counting that as a win since the 5 o’clock shadow is poppin already! lol ‍♂️

Love you guys!

#NovaHeart #StarlynStrong #FaithOverFear