Join Jeremiah's Journey to Recovery

Jeremiah is currently staying in a children's hospital in Utah where he is intubated and heavily sedated with family by his side, supporting his long road to recovery. His story reads below.

It is no secret that babies born premature face many obstacles during their first years of life, oftentimes having to overcome a life full of adversity. Jeremiah developed chronic lung disease due to his prematurity leaving him at high risk to breathing problems, impacted lung development, and low immunity conditions. Born at 1 lbs. 6 oz. and 12 inches long, Jeremiah developed a disease in both eyes, experienced a level four hemorrhaging bleed in his brain on the left side and level two on the right, contributing to some areas of his brain with limited to no function.

Jeremiah has overcome many different milestones since birth and was working on walking right before he got sick. On May 22, he tested positive for HMPV. The virus impacted his lungs severely and on May 27th, Jeremiah went into respiratory distress; his heart stopped 3 separate times and he received CPR for longer than three minutes each time. The doctors were unsure if he was going to make it. Once Jeremiah was stabilized, two tubes were put into his lungs to release liquid and fluid along with an incision into his stomach to release all the air that traveled through his body when he was receiving CPR. Jeremiah was maxed out on oxygen support in Reno, NV.

The decision was made to emergency air flight Jeremiah and his Mother from their home hospital in Nevada to Utah’s Primary Children's Hospital for surgery. The surgery set Jeremiah up on ECMO, a procedure that oxygenates the blood, giving his body time to rest. He was placed in an induced coma alongside ECMO for a total of eight days. Jeremiah started showing improvement and the decision was made to remove the ECMO which had caused a slight brain bleed on the left side of his brain which the doctors will continue to monitor to make sure that it does not grow. Almost one month later, Jeremiah is currently still intubated and working on being extubated. He is on ventilator and nitric to help support his lungs. He is heavily sedated to ease his pain. He shows positive signs of healing but his oxygen levels and heartbeat are unstable, and he is still unable to breathe on his own.

Jeremiah will have to overcome a sequence of hurdles to demonstrate healing and growth. He will not be discharged until his lungs have recovered and he is able to breathe on his own again. Jeremiah will go through physical therapy and will have around the clock care provided by the doctors and nurses in Utah until he is healthy and strong enough to make his commute back home.

Jeremiah’s family has transitioned their lives to never be too far out of reach. His mother and father have yet to leave his side while extended family, nana, papa, cousins, aunties, and uncles alike continue to make the trip to Utah to help out. Your life supporting donations will be contributions towards transportation costs, food and care costs, hospital bills, supportive medical aid, and ongoing care.

Thank you so much for your consideration.