My wife and I are reaching out to the community to help raise funds to pay for our newborn son, Stevie's heart procedure, medical expenses and our daily expenses for the next month. At just 5 days old our son had heart failure, and was placed on life support.
At his first pediatrician visit on Christmas Eve, his doctor informed us that all vital signs were normal, but she was worried about his weight loss and lack of energy. She recommended we take him to Phoenix Children's Hospital.
After a 7-hour ER stay, we were told everything looks normal, and we need to be more adamant about his feeds. At this point, we were waking up every 2-3 hours, trying to get him any amount of formula possible. After being sent home from the ER that night, we woke him up every hour to attempt to feed, but something wasn't right. After much deliberation, my wife and I decided to take him back to the hospital on Christmas. Little did we know that 8 hours later, our 5-day-old, precious rainbow baby would have to be placed on a life support machine called ECMO. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a treatment that uses a pump to circulate blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream of our very ill baby. They had to act quickly to save his life. We were rushed from the ER up to the 5th floor, to the Cardiovascular ICU where our son was promptly intubated and put on life support. We were in complete shock. His heart was failing rapidly, and we didn't know if he was going to make it through the procedures. We later learned that there were discussions about a potential heart transplant. We're glad to say we never had to travel that road.
After roughly 3 days on ECMO, his heart had shown a complete turnaround, and he was removed to allow it to start working on its own. A doctor of 20-some years said he had never seen a turnaround like that in an infant on ECMO with such extreme heart failure. It was a miracle, but his fight was far from over. It took him the next 3 weeks to regain his strength in order to feed by mouth.
On January 13th, we brought him home with a feeding tube (NG tube) and two medications (baby aspirin and Vitamin D). We were told Stevie now has a fully recovered, healthy heart that is structurally sound. Still, the cardiologist team has no idea why his heart failed and have ended the investigation into what could have caused it. With that being said we are not sure what the future holds, however medical bills are already coming in. As a FedEx truck driver of 13+ years my PTO runs out this week and we are worried about making ends meet while Stevie recovers.
As many of our friends and family know, the last two years have been pretty rough. On May 31st, 2024, my wife and I experienced a loss of our first baby, Jazz, during pregnancy at 33 weeks and 3 days due to what was believed to be a placental abruption. My wife, Stevie's mom, Amber, hemorrhaged and almost lost her life. Medical intervention and blood transfusions gave us another chance to be parents. So you can imagine the fear and panic we felt when we were told 5 days into Stevie's life that his heart was failing, and he was not guaranteed to live through the night. It felt like we were reliving our worst nightmare. A pain we cannot explain.
We are asking for help getting our feet underneath us while our precious baby boy gets through these rough waters. My wife and I are not ones to ask for help, but right now it's truly needed. My goal is to cover his medical expenses as well as our daily bills for the next month while we find out what is to come. We understand that not everyone can contribute financially but it would mean just as much if you share our story in an effort to reach somebody that can.
Thank you so much,
The Comstock Three