Protecting our Forrest (Infant Heart Surgery)

Baby Forrest is back in the hospital and we don’t know for how long. Friends and family of this sweet baby know how difficult these past four months have been as the 11 days in NICU, several multi-day stays in the Children’s Hospital, and uncertain test results have left us all worried for four month old Forrest.

As of now, Forrest has been diagnosed with “failure to thrive” meaning that there are factors causing her to not grow and develop as she should. While we are still waiting on the results of different tests for genetic metabolic and mitochondrial disorders, we already know that a huge root cause of her failure to thrive is her heart murmur that was discovered at birth. Concerningly, it seems the murmur is even larger than doctors originally thought and currently has the equivalent toll of “running a marathon everyday”. Corrective surgery that was originally set for April of 2024 has been pushed up to September 11th of this year. This most recent, and current, hospitalization is to manage her heart failure and keep her stable until surgery.

With maternity leave and their extensive time in the hospital, Jess (Forrest’s mother) has exhausted her PTO and FMLA, leaving them at risk of losing their primary source of income. Dylan (Forrest’s father) is still at work and picking up extra shifts to continue to support their family; but with two other kids at home and many hospital bills coming their way, finances are an added stress during an already difficult time.

If you are able, any donation to support Forrest’s hospital stay would be a tremendous help. Thank you to everyone who has already donated and supported the Williams family - they know that they can always count on you, like you can always count on a smile from Forrest, from any hospital bed.