Miracle Lucy & Mama's medical bills

After 9 years of trying to conceive a child and a miscarriage, our tiny and beautiful Lucy Elizabeth was born at 25 weeks' gestation on July 11, 2014.  She weighed just 1 lb. 3 oz. and was 11.5 inches in length. My wife Alisha's pregnancy had been a difficult one in which she had hyperemesis gravidarum the entire time, on bed rest from week 6 until she delivered, going on and off PICC lines and midlines and getting all her nutrition intravenously. No medication seemed to help her nausea in the least and it continued for months after the delivery, which is not typical for HG. We believe it's because she already had poor health prior to her pregnancy. She was in and out of the hospital multiple times before developing severe pre-eclampsia leading to the early delivery of Lucy via c-section.

While in the NICU Lucy did amazingly well in some ways, but in others progress was slow- specifically her ability to breathe. She spent 87 days on a ventilator until her lungs were strong enough to begin breathing on their own. She went through several illnesses that set her back each time. We didn't get to hold her for the first time until she was 12 days old, and then only because we thought we were saying goodbye. We didn't hold her much until she was a few months old. There were several times when the doctors let us know they weren't sure if she would live much longer.

After 5 1/2 months (167 days) in the NICU, Lucy came home on Christmas Eve 2014. She was on oxygen and heart monitors and she had undergone surgery to insert a g-tube for her feeding as her lungs weren't strong enough yet to allow her to take all her food via a bottle, but she was healthy and able to come home and it felt like a miracle.

Insurance covered a decent amount of the vast expense of such an extended NICU stay, but given the overall amount, what we were left with was still a huge bill and we have been struggling to pay. Both Lucy's care and the care during my wife's pregnancy left us with the amount we are asking. We have ongoing costs to provide Lucy with feeding tube and pump equipment and physical and occupational therapies, as well as regular specialist appointments. We have also accumulated medical bills for my wife during the last 13 years that she had been chronically ill. She has 15 different physical and mental conditions. Additionally, she vomited up to 25 times a day during her entire pregnancy and continued to for many months afterward. She still has many sick days a month and every day is painful and exhausting for her. She cannot work, and typically can't care for Lucy on her own at all some days. She carries a lot of guilt. This has also meant that her dental work has cost us thousands over the years as she has inherently weak teeth, and her pregnancy and the following months permanently damaged them further and she has lost many of them. She has always had excellent dental hygiene but that hasn't made much of a difference. She is losing more tooth enamel every day.

We have been working with the various groups we owe to as best we can and paying as much as we can, but we simply aren't able to pay them fast enough. We also need to continue Alisha's dental work before she loses more teeth. We pay $573 a month for health insurance and about $300 more a month for medications and appointments for Alisha. That doesn't include costs for Lucy's healthcare. We were also recently court-ordered to pay an additional $800 a month toward our debts, and we didn't have that money to spare.

Today, Lucy is 22 months old and weighs nearly 20 pounds. She is running, starting to talk, and still has her g-tube. She is the light of our lives. We're still just so grateful that she's home and ALIVE.

We are eternally grateful for the nurses and doctors who saved Lucy's life and the life of her mother . We're also very grateful for the doctors who have cared for my wife over the years. We will always be thankful for any donations to help us pay off this debt. We haven't wanted to rely on donations but things have become desperate with the mounting demands for payment. We want anyone who donates to know how much we appreciate it and always will.