Medical expenses and care for Milo Nowak

My very close friend Holly and her husband, Chris welcomed their baby boy Milo Christopher Nowak about a month early after her water broke early Monday, May 11, 2020. Milo, weighing 6lbs on the dot, had arrived via C-section because he was breech.  The NICU team at Ridges was there and whisked him away after Chris and Holly were able to see him and snap a quick picture or 2.  Little did we know we were about to get some heartbreaking news. The NICU team was trying to insert a tube into his esophagus to clean it out and they could only get the tube so far down.  They took an xray and it was at that point they discovered Milo has esophageal atresia.  Meaning his esophagus is not connected to his tummy; there is a gap between the 2 with pouches on both ends.  During the doctors initial look over of Milo, they also thought he may have Down Syndrome.  There were a couple markers that made the doctor suspect this. 

Chris met with the surgeon and they decided they would do Milo's surgery on Wednesday.  Their goal with surgery is to "sew" the two ends together so his esophagus connects to his tummy.  We did also find out that the chromosome test came back and it was confirmed that Milo does have Down Syndrome.  This was a hard pill to swallow and will probably be a shock for a lot of people reading this.  This is the least of our worries right now.  We need him to get this surgery done and get him eating orally so we can bring him home so he can meet his sister!  This is our main priority right now.  We need to get over one hurdle at a time.

Thursday arrived and there was a little improvement with his PDA so they decided to go ahead with surgery with a little extra precaution.  Surgery took 3 to 3.5 hours and it went well.  Milo did great.  The gap between the two pouches was unfortunately too large for him to "sew" them together so he placed "strings" on each end and will stretch the 2 ends and will have to go in for another surgery in approximately 10-14 days. 

We do not know when the second surgery will take place.  We were initially told 10-14 days after the first surgery.  It could be before that, could be later than that. 

Having Chris take extra time off of work and longer hospital stay for Milo, means extra stress on the family. Wanting to help reduce any financial stresses that may come down the road as they need to keep their main focus on this beautiful baby and his older sister, Avery. Anything would be greatly appreciated for this family as they adjust to their new “normal”.