Our Sweet Delilah Started The Fight Of Her Life Just Days Before Christmas & Just 2 Weeks Before Her Birthday . What Started Off As What Her Dad & I Thought Was Just A Seasonal Cold Turned Into Our Worst Nightmare In A Matter Of Hours . Wednesday , December 21, 2022 , Delilah Went Unresponsive & We Called 911 . Tawas Hospital Told Us She Was In Diabetic Shock & Kidney Failure , They Sent Her To DMC By Helicopter . When Her Dad & I Got Down To Detroit We Were Met With A Sentence That NO Parent Should Have To Hear ; " She's Dying & Needs A Heart/Lung Bypass ." I Can't Even Begin To Describe The Emotions That Flooded Our Bodies As We Processed The Drastic Change & Horrifing News Of Our 13 Year Old Daughter . We Signed The Papers & They Hooked Our Baby To The Ecmo Machine . We Were Told The Next 72 Hours Were Crucial For Her . The First Night On Ecmo She Was Having Complications & They Added A Third Line . So Now She Had Two Lines In Her Neck , One At The Jugular & One At The Carotid , & One In Her Groin . The Next Morning She Was Still Having Complications & During A Heart Echo They Found That Her Heart Had Substained Damage , Specifically The Right Side Was Dialated & The Left Side Wasn't Contracting , So They Put A Balloon In Her Heart . She Was Still Critical But She Was Stable . Then We Finally Got A Diagnosis For All This , Fuliment Myocarditis ; Acute Onset Heart Failure . Delilah Spent Christmas On Life Support & Our Boys Spent It Separated Between Family . She Spent Almost A Full Week On Two Different Types Of Life Support . On December 27th She Came Off The Ecmo Machine . On The 28th The Fighter In Her Started To Come Out & She Pulled Her Breathing Tube Out By Herself . Her Body Seemed To Be Handling Its Own So They Let It Be . They Switched Her Floors On The 29th & That Made Us Super Happy ! When We Went To See Her We Were Devastated To Find Our Baby Going Through Withdrawal Because Her Body Had Been Pumped Full Of Fentanyl While On Ecmo , She Was So Sick She Didn't Want To Move . In The Early Morning Hours Of The 30th She Had At Least 2 Seizures , They Took Her For An MRI & EEG To Check To See If She Had A Stroke . Everything Came Back Normal . They Noticed That She Was Having A Hard Time Getting The Secretions Up & Protecting Her Airways . Her PICU Team Decided It Was Best To Intubate Her Again . After Doing So They Had Complications Stabilizing Her Oxygen , Her Body Was Still Struggling On The Machine . A Chest X-Ray Showed Her Left Lung Being Completely Whited Out , They're Supposed To Be Black . They Found That She Had Aspirated & It Collasped The Left Lung . On December 31st 2022 Delilah Remains Critical But Stable .

Delilah Comes From A Blended Family Of Five ; Dad , Mom , & Two Younger Brothers , Who Miss Her So So Much . We Live 3 Hours Away From The Hospital . Our Boys Spent The First Week Bouncing Between Family Members As We Dealt With Things Down Here . To Be Home With The Boys We Worry About Delilah , & To Be With Delilah We Worry About Our Boys . So Now We ( Mom & Dad ) Are Separated So All Our Kids Have Us .

All Of This Was So Sudden , We NEVER Imagined When We Called 911 On 12/21/22 That It Was Going To Become Life Or Death For Her . There Are Still A Lot Of Unknowns At This Time . Dad Is Our Only Income & Was Out Of Work The Week Before With Influenza A & Went Back To Work Just 2 Days Prior To All Of This Happening . 

Please , Please Continue To Pray For Our Sweet Girl