6 weeks ago, my brother Jeff and his wife Morgan welcomed their precious baby boy, Mason, into the world. He came a little early, but in every way he seemed absolutely perfect. He is the sweetest, most peaceful, beautiful baby. Jeff is the most involved, gentle, and loving father I’ve ever known, and Morgan is an incredible mother and a nurse herself. She has already done the unthinkable and saved Mason from what could have been a SIDS tragedy, every parent’s worst nightmare.

Not long after coming home, Mason began to struggle to breathe. What seemed like a common cold quickly became terrifying. They rushed him to the ER where his oxygen levels were critically low. Even on a high-flow oxygen machine, he was struggling. The hospital was unable to treat him and he was transported by ambulance to Saginaw Children’s Hospital. There, his oxygen dropped to just 20%. Doctors rushed to manually bag air into his tiny lungs until a NIV Bi-Pap ventilator could take over. No parent should ever have to see their newborn like that. 

For a week, his oxygen routinely dropped to the 20s and the ventilator and a feeding tube was needed for his survival. Doctors attempts to take him off the machine that was breathing for him, hoping he would breathe on his own, would always eventually result in an episode. Every time, he would eventually stop breathing, especially during sleep. The cold itself passed quickly, but the terrifying breathing episodes did not. Every test, every scan, every specialist provided no answers. After ten long days, Mason was transferred via ambulance again, this time to the University of Michigan hospital in hopes of getting answers and advanced care.

There, his carbon dioxide levels became dangerously high. As I write this, we still don’t have answers. We still don’t have a timeline. We only know that Mason currently needs a machine to breathe for him to survive, and his parents sit by his bedside not knowing when they will finally be able to take their baby home.

Jeff has been off work for over four weeks now. Morgan’s maternity leave has ended, but there is no world in which she can leave her tiny baby’s side. Even with health insurance through her job as a nurse, they already owe tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Not to mention copays, transportation, food, and lodging. On top of this, they have an 18-month-old daughter at home who is being cared for while her parents live in hospital rooms and sleeping areas. They are falling behind on bills. They are burning through savings, and they are trying to survive two impossible nightmares at once: the fear of losing their child and the fear of losing their livelihood and their stability.

In a country where families are forced to choose between time with their hospitalized child and financial ruin, I am begging for help on their behalf.

My brother and his wife are the most deserving, selfless, hardworking parents. They are not people who ask for help. They are the ones who help others. And right now, they need us.

Please, if you are able, donate anything you can, even a few dollars makes a difference. And if you can’t donate, please share Mason’s story. This could be any family. Any baby. Any parent.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for reading, for caring, and for helping my family all breathe better.