On February 5, 2021 our daughter Kaileia Skye was born with a left brachial plexus injury during our traumatic birth experience. She was diagnosed with erbs palsy in her left arm leaving her with little to no movement in her shoulder, bicep, forearm, wrist, fingers and a weak grip when she was born. The brachial plexus injury is a result of ruptured or stretched nerves that run from the spine through her neck into her shoulder affecting her entire left arm.

As you can imagine with Kaileia Skye being our very first child, the diagnosis of this brachial plexus injury was extremely new to us and very devastating. As we experience our chapter of being new parents, we also experience the roller coaster of emotions during Kaileia’s recovery journey. She started her physical therapy journey at 2 weeks old and a few months later we decided it was best for our family, that I (her mother) care for Kaileia full time with her at home arm stretches and therapy everyday. Though she has made improvements of movement in her arm and fingers, the surgeons feel this injury cannot heal successfully on its own and the nerve surgery is very much needed before she turns one. Kaileia is still unable to bend using her bicep or lift her left arm without support and her left hand grip just doesn't compare to her right hand. Our hearts are broken that our daughter has experienced this degree of injury in such early moments of her life, but we know the surgery can make a huge impact on the rest of her life.

We live in California and the team of surgeons that will be operating on our sweet girl is located in Philadelphia, PA . Kaileia Skye's is 6.5 months and surgery is scheduled for this September (in just a few weeks) and this is quite a travel journey for us. We are trying our best to stay strong for our little girl. The funds raised will go directly to traveling expenses (flights, hotel, car) for our family and supplies to keep Kaileia comfortable before, during and after the surgery.

If you feel more comfortable sending funds via venmo, please send to Lizelle Bernal VENMO: @ceycey

Please share our story if you can. Anything makes a difference #Brachialplexusinjury #ErbsPalsy #KaileiaSkyeStrong

Thank you so much!

The IoLani Family