In memory of our warrior Giovanni

Hi everyone my names Melissa and I'm going to tell you about my story as I fight back my tears, so bare with me.

Earlier this year my partner and I were blessed with the news of having a little one join our family. It's been 9yrs since my family and I have had tiny feet run around our house so you can imagine our excitement. Early in my pregnancy we were given the hard news that our angel would be different than others and have physical complications and might not survive the full pregnancy. That news came with a name and that was Pfeiffer syndrome. Our hearts dropped, but we felt and heard how strong our little one was in my tummy and decided that no matter what we would preserve and continue on our journey and prey, love and care even harder. If our little one wants to make it through then we would too.

November 7th, 2022 Giovanni made his way into our world full term and proved everyone wrong, he was 20inchs and 7lbs and full of attitude and movement just like his brother. Quickly after he was born the nurses went to work because he couldn't exhale all the co2 his body was producing and had other birth defects so they took him straight into the NICU. At the very moment we felt the fear no parents want and that's if our child is going to make it and will we see him again. Once I was out of the delivery room and in recovery, I was told that he was stable and doing well. I was relieved but still hurt because I couldn't hold my baby or be with him. As I recovered from my c-section, we went to the NICU as much as we could so that our son knew that his family was there and that he wasn't alone. November 11th I was discharged and had to leave the hospital without our son. That level of sadness that my partner and I felt we were not prepared for, but we kept hope that one day we will be leaving this hospital with our son in our hands just like everyone else.

We went everyday to the NICU to see our son and prayed for the strength he needed for his journey ahead. As the hospital began their examinations of gio to prepare a surgery plan to begin his road to recovery to correct the challenges that come with his syndrome the doctors discovered a heart defect. He has a critical Coarctation of the aorta and a hole between the lower verticals. This has now put a stop to everything and a redirection to his recovery plan.

To have his syndrome and a heart defect is an extremely rare situation as I came to find only two families in the Facebook world that have little warriors with similar diagnosis. Unfortunately because of that our cardiologist team were not confident in preforming the surgery for his heart because the likelihood of Gio surviving the surgery was not there. I spoke with the other families to see if this is true and even asked for other medical opinions because we didn't want to give up on our son, he made it this far and we wanted to be sure. Once we got all the feed back and research we decided to proceed with the surgery option and left it up to Giovanni and God's hands to make it through and recover. He has made it this far right, So why would we give up.

Going into our next meeting with all the doctors expecting them to give us a game plan of the heart surgery and proceed. They told us that Giovanni was no longer eligible for surgery because his syndrome is too severe and even the second opinion from the other Cardio team out of state who have performed the surgery also stated that the surgery would not be successful because of the severity. They also informed us that he has MRSA which also rules out surgery because once the infection enters his blood stream he's chance are extremely low especially since his veins are too small to maintain the proper iv line for the antibiotics.

Our hearts were officially broken instead of us moving forward with our son with his battle it has all come to an end. With everything going on we are now left with the decision to have him suffer no more. Never would I have thought that this would happen. No parent ever wants to bury their child especially their newborn baby and then go right into work the next morning. This is why I am reaching out for help. My family and I want to honor our sons passing and give ourselves time to grieve and heal ourselves atleast just a little. Before we have to go back into our world without our baby. With your donation it will help us pay our upcoming financial responsibilities and pay down our card debit due to traveling back and forth from the hospital and me being on unpaid maternity leave. My partner has been doing his best to provide for us but in doing so its taking a toll mentally and emotionally. Especially now with our time running out all we want to do is spend as much time with our baby and give ourselves atleast some time for our family to heal.