Pray for Gracelynn

My cousin, Samantha (Crocker) Rocha, and her husband, Zac Rocha, welcomed their daughter Gracelynn Briar Rocha into their family on February 24th, 2023. During her first week at home Gracelynn struggled with thermoregulation and was brought to the Cook Children’s ER with a temperature of 103.5. After being assessed by physicians at Cook Children’s Hospital and receiving a spinal tap, she was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and admitted to the hospital at a week old on March 3, 2023.

The treatment for bacterial meningitis is a minimum of two weeks of hospitalization with intravenous (IV) fluids administered around the clock. With Gracelynn’s young age and severity, physicians expect that she will need to stay in the hospital for at least 4 weeks. In the first days at the hospital, Samantha and Zac learned that Gracelynn suffered two mini strokes and needed to be put on a blood thinner protocol. Gracelynn received a PICC line to administer her medication and was put on audiology’s radar for potential hearing loss. While Gracelynn has improved over the last week, there will be a long journey ahead and the possibility for residual long-term health concerns.

We created this GoFundMe to alleviate the financial stress and burden bestowed on Samantha and Zac. Any contributions will allow them to focus on loving and caring for their newborn daughter and four-year-old son Gabriel. Gracelynn was a gift from God for the Rocha family two years after experiencing a stillbirth of their first daughter, Kaitlynn, at 37 weeks.