Help us support Dahlia.

  My son and I were on the way up from Florida on the 1st of March for his daughter's birth. Mom called letting us know Dahlia came early on 3-1-23 in Athens, Ohio. On 3-2-23, she was rushed to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. With unknown issues. 

  She was not eating or was able to defecate. She was spitting up lime-green fluids. They were unsure what was going on. Out of precaution, she was put into NICU. She was just getting worse. Her tummy was distended and hard. 

On Friday, they rushed her into surgery for a bowl blockage removal. They found perforations in her bowl. Needing to remove parts of her intestines and her appendix. They gave her an Ileostomy (a surgical operation in which a piece of the ileum is diverted to an artificial opening in the abdominal wall). She will need time to heal before they attempt to reattach her intestines. This will take 6-8 weeks to do. Then, she will need to heal after the 2nd surgery. We are staying in a Ronald McDonald house for the duration of her stay in the hospital. 

  We will be here at least 14 weeks without complications. We are in need of assistance with rent (back home, and mom's house) insurance, gas, and other personal items the house can not provide. We are unable to work here in Columbus. Our jobs are in florida waiting for our return.

  She is on a breathing machine, and her O2 stats are not good without oxygen. They have her sedated and on IV fluids and supplements. She is unable to feed yet. She was on a constant morphine drip that was lessened yesterday. She is swollen from the surgery and all the fluids. We can be in the room with her. We can not hold her yet. We spend most of our time there with her or in the family room. Only comming to the RD house to sleep. Food expenses are high. We have already used our gas $ for essential items we did not expect to need. 

  We have never felt this vulnerable or usless in our lives. We appreciate you helping us, listening to us, sharing our story and need.