Help Willow Thrive: Support Brandi and Zack

Brandi and Zack got married on December 26, 2021! Shortly after, they tried to have a baby but were unfortunately unsuccessful, so they put it on hold and continued to live life. Brandi and Zack decided they wanted to try again and after the second month, they got a positive test! All the emotions of becoming new parents quickly sank in.

It wasn’t until their twenty-week ultrasound that they found out about Willow’s diagnosis - an Omphalocele! I’m sure many of you don’t or didn’t know what that even was until you heard or met Willow. An omphalocele occurs in around 1 in 10,000 births, making it pretty rare. Following this diagnosis, pregnancy now looked a little different, involving visits to a maternal fetal medicine doctor, specialists, surgeons, NICU doctors, etc.

Willow was supposed to be born on June 10th of 2024, but she was ready to conquer this world and arrived 10 weeks early on April 6th, 2024! She was born with a large omphalocele containing all of her bowels and part of her liver in a membrane sac outside of her body. Omphalocele babies usually have a somewhat long stay in the NICU as is, but then factor in that Miss Willow wanted to come early on top! Willow has been thriving in the NICU until they lowered her oxygen way too fast and she was having difficulty breathing. This was very alarming and scary to Brandi and Zack. Although scary, this event led to a second diagnosis, Willow also has Pulmonary Hypertension. Now with that being diagnosed, the doctors have now started treating her for that and it has significantly improved!

Willow still has a long journey ahead of her. With her second diagnosis, they moved her discharge date from this fall to around Christmas. This means that Brandi and Zack will need to continue daily to make the nearly hour trip to the hospital. Zack recently was laid off and times have gotten a little tight. He is actively searching for a job to be able to provide for his family again and has several interviews lined up! No donation is too small or too big! If you can’t help financially, if you could please share this and or if you would like to make a meal for Brandi and Zack, feel free to reach out to Brandi! Any and all help is welcome!