Mo the Great

Hello, my name is Elizabeth and we are fundraising for my Brother David, Sister (in law) Lynnette, and the beautiful Morgan. A little back story here- David and Lynnette have been together for over 10 years, have gotten married, and then tried for over 5 years to be parents. After struggling and not becoming pregnant they ended up deciding that they were just going to be the fun aunt and uncle. Little did they know God stepped in and blessed them with Morgan. Morgan came into the world early causing her extended hospital stay. Now this little fighter is demanding the best care and will have to be transferred to 1 of 3 other hospitals. Miss Morgan is growing faster then her lungs can keep up, she has already spent 4 months in the helpful hands of the Memorial NICU. Now she is getting ready to be transported to a better equipped hospital to help her lungs catch up. They aren’t sure which one yet and due to them not knowing which one is covered under insurance. I can update later with their decision. Thank you for taking the time to read their story and please share. We love all 3 of them very much and we want our little Mo home.

******This is what Momma told me:10/25/21: I had a growth ultrasound and doppler, after receiving the RhoGAM shot and a set of steroids to assist Morgan with growth and development. I was admitted into Triage for monitoring of Morgans heart rate. After 2.5 hours, I was informed that I would be admitted into the Special Care Unit for 24-hour monitoring.  

10/26/21: I was awoken by my new OB, Dr. B, coming in to inform me that there was an issue with my blood work and that I would not be leaving the hospital until after Morgan was born. Dr. B explained that I had an extreme form of preeclampsia called HELLP syndrome. Being at 25 weeks (about 5 and a half months) along in my pregnancy, this was extremely rare, since I had 0 issues with my blood pressure for the last 22 weeks (we found out we were pregnant at 3 weeks). This means that my RBC was currently sitting at 90 (it was 350+ in June) and my liver enzymes were 8x higher than normal. He informed me that they would be running more blood work to confirm and explained the mother side complications with having a baby this early. Dr. B also let me know that if I would not have been admitted, that within the next few weeks I would have started to have seizures which would have led to a deadly stroke for both of us. 
A little later Morgans Doctor (Dr. BR) came in and explained the complications baby side. Morgan had a 50-60% survival rate for just the delivery.  
2 hours later, Dr. B came in and explained that my RBC had dropped to 87 in the last few hours and that we would be having Morgan now. They had 6 units of blood on standby for both of us in case anything was to happen.  
Within minutes, the nurses had arrived, and I began signing paperwork for myself and Morgan. I had called David and he arrived at the hospital only 10 minutes after leaving work. An hour later, at 1:15pm, we had our sweet Morgan, weighing 1lb and being 11in long. 

Morgan was intubated within 3 hours due to being so tiny and having such a tough time breathing. Morgan remained intubated for the next 3.5 months as every time they tried to remove it, she would stop breathing. 

Like other micro-preemies, Morgan has had issues over the last 4 months. Issues with feeding, weight gain, edema (swelling), BPD, and her heart. She has a PDA, heart murmur, that has been slowly closing but is causing her issues with blood pressure on the right side of her heart. Unfortunately, if Dr. BR fixes the blood pressure with the PDA there, then it can cause more fluid to press onto her lungs, making it more difficult to breathe. There is no known cause or solution for her edema that is now all in her head. Luckily, there are no and have been no brain bleeds. 

Morgan currently has a trach to better assist her with breathing as being intubated causes a disruption of the development of her palate. Morgan was initially doing well with the new trach even having a larger one put it as she was growing well. As a result of her prematurity, Morgan has Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) also known as Chronic Lung Disease. BPD will stunt her lung growth and will give her respiratory issues for the rest of her life. Along with this, Morgan runs the risk of growing faster than her lungs are developed. If this were to happen, Morgan would go into heart failure as she would not be able to pump the oxygenated blood through her body. This is the struggle that we are currently in. Morgan has been struggling with her oxygen levels at various times of the day and the reality is that with her requiring so much oxygen, she is not stable enough to travel. Dr. BR is trying everything that her and the other doctors in the NICU can to help stabilize her. 

Unfortunately, Memorial Hospital does not have a dedicated team for BPD patients. She will need to be transported to a different hospital with such designated teams. All such hospitals are at a minimum, 3 hours away. When she is transferred, unfortunately, neither of us can take the entire time off due to bills and needing to save the time off for when she is able to come home.  

We are already so blown away by everything everyone has done, and we are so grateful as we do not ask for help and will actively not tell people everything so that they do not worry about us, and we are not a burden. 

Thank you and we cannot wait for Morgan to meet everyone that obviously loves her so much.