Miracle baby Gunner relief fund!

 

Aloha family and friends... our Ohana!

 

We have much news to share!! First, there are no words to describe how happy we are to say that Sarah and Jacob’s boy, Gunner James Plemel is earth side with us!! He was born at 11:48am on Friday February 18th here on Maui. He weighed in at 6 lbs .08 oz and is 18 inches long!!

After 8 years and a lot of heartache trying to get pregnant, Sarah and Jacob were finally blessed with a pregnancy that stuck!! COVID, her age and other factors, made her pregnancy ‘high risk’, but Sarah did everything right and was blooming. Their baby was healthy and growing and there were zero issues for their child. They simply wanted him to be born safely so they could take him home and watch him grow.

Fast forward to Thursday, February 17th when Sarah went into labor naturally. Yes, labor was early but baby was big and his heart rate strong. In hindsight, this early labor saved Gunner’s life.

He did a great job at getting out early, but things were not as they planned at all!! During labor, his heart rate was dropping with the contractions too much, so the Dr. told them a C-section was warranted. It was not the labor & birth journey Sarah had dreamed of, but they were out of safe options.

In 20 minutes Sarah was on the operating table, Jacob was brought into the room and Gunner was born!! He let out that first cry and for a moment their dreams felt 100% real, but Gunner’s belly was bruised. After a few X-rays and nothing conclusive for them to determine, the doctors decided to Medi-vac him over to Oahu for tests.

Sarah was devastated. She had only gotten to hold her boy for a few minutes but now both her husband and son were flying away. We knew we couldn’t leave her alone so Hannah went to the hospital to be with Sarah, while Cameron, Tosh, Tyler & Chelsea took care of all the kids.

The specialists on Oahu did exploratory surgery and found Gunner’s small intestine was dead; necrotic. Jacob had to make the choice to either leave the organs in place and make his boy comfortable until he passed away, or to cut out the intestine and potentially give him a chance.  Jacob chose to give his boy a fighting chance.  The surgeons told Jacob to prepare himself and Sarah that Gunner’s survival was slim due to the removal of so much intestine.

 

Sarah being Sarah received this news and knew she had to get to her family. With Hannah’s help Sarah was released from the hospital just 12 hours after Sarah’s birth-giving surgery. She wanted to say goodbye to her baby, with Jacob.

Next, us sisters booked the first flight out of Maui at 6am to help Sarah do the impossible. Say goodbye to her brand new son, Gunner... None of us could wrap our minds around having to say goodbye so soon, but we had to get his mama to him. So we did.

Shortly after arriving Jacob came down to the outside of the hospital and told us Sarah was pumping her milk and gave us the miraculous news!!! Gunner not only made it through the night but was do better then the doctors could have ever expected!

We are a week into this miracle boy’s life which has been so hard and so, so beautiful. We are all in the presence of one miracle after another.

Gunner wants to be here and we are going to do everything possible to make that happen! Their doctors are extremely pro-active because he has been doing extremely well, so he is having another surgery to connect what’s left of his small intestines and speed up this initial stage of healing.

We LOVE how science and technology keep evolving, so we all have confidence further discoveries will emerge, but for now we know Gunner needs special care and support.

Thankfully Sarah, Jacob and Gunner are in amazing hands at Kapi’olani Medical Center where they are receiving incredible support, skill and knowledge from their medical team than they could have dreamed possible.

But they are also going to need ALL our help.

For the next few months, at least, Gunner will be living in the NICU, so Sarah will be on Oahu, while Jacob will have to go back and forth to conduct their business.

We have to ship Sarah's car over and we need to find them a fully furnished place to live. If anyone has connections on Oahu for housing, please let us know as that would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!

There will be many medical bills on top of inter-island flights and eventually an extra caregiver, weekly. There will be more surgeries for our brave Gunner and normal living expenses will accrue. Once they can return to Maui, there will be many expenses we don’t know about yet.

However you can contribute will be incredibly helpful and greatly appreciated. Most importantly, we ask for lots and lots of prayers, love and healing for Gunner and for these new parents who have been pillars in our community and in the lives of so many!

Please share whatever you can; send the link to your friends, if you're inspired and keep holding faith for Gunner.

Love,

Gunner’s Family