Marissa and Azarias

Hi, my name is Brenda and I am raising money for my daughter to be able to be with her son while he is hospitalized for several weeks after surgery at Mayo. He is perfect other than this huge mass which will inhibit his physical development if not removed. Here's their story. As a few of you may know, at her 20 week ultrasound Marissa was told her baby had 3 abnormalities(chest, spine and bowels) and would not be compatible with life. She was told she could either terminate the pregnancy or go see a specialist to learn more about the abnormalities. Thankfully she was able to get in to Maternal Fetal Medicine the next day due to a cancellation and learned that they weren’t actually the abnormalities they suspected, but a very large lymphatic malformation on his entire right side of his body, she went thru an amniocentesis procedure to see if he had any genetic conditions that could be linked with the lymphatic malformation and those all came back negative.

She underwent many MFM appointments and ultrasounds for the duration of her pregnancy until she went into PPROM at 35w0d. Azarias ”helped by god” was born by C-section on May 18th 2023 Transferred immediately to the NICU, where he would spend 29 long days. During which he underwent his first Sclerotherapy treatment for his malformation. About 2 weeks after discharge, an unrelated ER visit landed him back in hospitalization for several days where he had to undergo a blood transfusion due to extremely low hemoglobin. A month later he underwent his second Sclerotherapy treatment which again resulted in him having to have a blood transfusion due to low hemoglobin. At this time we decided to switch treatment methods, to an oral medication called Sirolimus which is an immunosuppressant and also looked into being seen in Rochester at the Mayo Clinic for a second opinion.

Since starting the Sirolimus in August we have seen small improvement in the shrinking of his malformation. 2 weeks ago Marissa met with the specialists at Mayo who think it’s in Azarias’ best interest to have a debulking surgery, for sure by his 1st birthday, but preferably in the next couple months, to hopefully stop any delays physically and developmentally. They go back to the Mayo Clinic, October 17/18th to meet with the Pediatric Surgeons and Genetics team to talk over the surgery, benefits vs risks, and hopefully set a date.

We’re setting up this Go Fund Me to help with the past and future costs of bills, time off work for appointments, and at least several weeks off work for Marissa, to be with Azari during surgery and recovery in Rochester, Travel(Gas and Hotels) to and from Rochester and St Paul(Home) where her older son Josiah will have to stay with Family/Friends.

No amount is too big or small as we are grateful for any help! If you’re unable to donate, please share and keep our family in your thoughts and prayers!!