Oliver's journey to healing

I want to start this fundraiser for my sweet nephew Oliver to help their family during this hard time.

Here's what's been going on:

"Our sweet Oliver was born on March 17th after a long labor ending in an emergency C section. He came out with his cord wrapped around his neck 3x and was unresponsive. The incredible doctors saved his life and he was quickly brought to the nicu. They had to suction out his airways because they were filled with vernix. By the next day they were still suctioning out mucus and vernix from his airways. They found it odd and did more testing. After an x ray they diagnosed him with TEF-EA. This is a rare birth defect that is virtually impossible to find on ultrasounds and is unknown in cause. TEF-EA means that Oliver’s esophagus and the stomach didn’t connect. Instead his esophagus connected to his trachea. What this means for Oliver is that he is not able to swallow food or any of his saliva. It’s also extremely difficult for him to breathe normally. Once he was diagnosed the drs transferred us to the children’s hospital of Orange County (CHOC). On his second day of life, Oliver underwent a 6 hour surgery to close the connection to his trachea and connect his esophagus to his stomach. At the time, we thought the surgery was a success. However, as we begin to feed Oliver, it became apparent there was an issue with his new connection as no milk was going into his stomach. The surgeons took Oliver in for a second surgery, opening up his stomach and attempting to dilate and make the new connection wider. Unfortunately the operation was unsuccessful. We waited 2 more weeks for a 3rd surgery - this time to send a camera through his mouth and through his stomach, and attempt another dilation. The surgeons were unable to pass any wire through, as the connection is so narrow. At this point, the surgical team made the recommendation to transfer Oliver to Boston Children’s Hospital, since they specialize in babies with TEF. Oliver will leave for Boston on May 12 and will have a complete re-repair surgery, where they will detach his esophagus from his stomach and attempt to reconnect it, with the hope that it will not narrow and will allow for milk to pass through. With the transfer to Boston, we are now faced with unexpected challenges. We do not know how long we will be in Boston, and now we need to uproot our lives to be there for the foreseeable future. Since the hospital does not allow us to live in the hospital room, we will need to find housing accommodations, as well as flights out to Boston. This would be challenging under any circumstances but McKenzie will not be working and we will be losing half our income during this time. We are humbly asking for any assistance during the worst time of our lives while we stand by our son as he fights through surgery after surgery.

P.S. we keep asking God why this is happening to us. Yesterday, we were told that a Choc surgeon will be flying to Boston with Oliver to learn how to perform this re-repair surgery so that they can bring their learnings back to Choc and help children in the future. If the reason this is happening to Oliver is for children in Orange County to get this kind of care in the future here, what an incredible testimony God has woven into our son’s life."

-Salcedas

The funds will be used for their out of pocket medical expenses of 8k, flights to and from Boston, housing accomodations (no word back on the Ronald McDonald house yet ), and meals.

Thank you for your support of prayers and financial donations!