Ozzie Lee's Trachea and G-Tube Journey

Hi,

My name is Julie, I'm one of the many TutorTime parents that appreciates all that Mr. Tim does for our kids. We now have the opportunity to show our care and appreciation for all the love and kindness Mr. Tim has shared with our own little ones.

This gofundme is for Tim & Lillyanne's newborn baby, Ozzie Lee.

Their story:

On September 18th 2023, Tim and I welcomed our son into the world. Ozzie was born at Advocate Lutheran General where we were discharged 2 days later, even after we questioned his breathing. He was born with a bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate. Lutheran General Hospital told us everything was fine and can take a special Dr. Browns Cleft Palate bottle by mouth. We questioned his breathing while we were at Lutheran and everyone that helped with discharge had us 2nd guessing that he was ok.

We were home for less than a week and decided to bring him into the ER at Ann and H. Laurie’s Childrens Hospital in Chicago. He went through triage with only 15 minutes being back in the ER and they noticed he stopped breathing, and his oxygen levels were dropping dramatically. He was rushed back into a trauma and intubated right away and has been on a ventilator now for over a week.

Update October 3rd: Ozzie will be going into surgery today for a tracheostomy and G-tube. It’s been very hard to cope with everything being told, and just seeing him suffer at 2 1/2 weeks old. After learning a G-tube with Elena and training on the Trachea these last couple days has really boosted confidence for us as parents. Still a long road of learning, and doing what’s best for our beautiful children.

He’s got a great set of lungs just a narrow airway that needs some support for a couple years to open up as he grows. Very strong and very brave along with being calm having a ventilator in for days now. The Lurie’s team has been so amazing to us and Ozzie has the same ENT team as our daughter Elena did in the past for a floppy airway.

We’re very nervous and the next 5 days he will be sedated and maybe even paralyzed so he doesn’t move around with the trachea in so the stoma (hole in the neck) doesn’t get infected and has time to heal. We will be working bedside after those 5 days doing some hands on learning with the nurses and doctor til we are comfortable to go home with our boy.

Update on surgery: Surgery went well but we have a long way to go here with recovering. We as Ozzie’s parents have a-lot to learn on caring for his trachea.