Stand by Orion: A Family in Need

As many of you may know, my sweet little baby cousin Orion Jeremiah Sanders (son of Kelcey Easley and Rodney Sanders) is at UC Davis Medical Center at the very young age of 5 months old. The doctors are still trying to determine the full reason for his visit and the best course of treatment for him moving forward. His 3 adorable young siblings are with their grandparents while mom and dad stay by his side to continue to advocate for his best care and comfort him in this incredibly scary time.

This very extended stay 4 hours from home has left their little family with no income and bills still coming in. It is very likely that over the coming months, even once Orion gets released from the hospital, there will be future trips to Sacramento to continue the best care for him.

I'm starting this fundraiser to help ease that financial burden for them. If you find yourself compelled/able to help, please do.

Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support. I will try to keep Kelcey's updates noted here and have added the previous updates as well. Please pray for complete healing for Orion with no long-term effects, and comfort and strength for his parents and family.

Kelcey's posts below:

I believe in prayer and prayer in numbers can really work miracles. At this time we would like to get a prayer chain going for our little man Orion and for his recovery and strength. On Sunday we were flown to UC Davis and today he was sedated and intubated. He had RSV and Rhinovirus followed by pneumonia. While things are extremely tough my faith is stronger. If you can take a moment to pray for our little man we would more than appreciate it. He can use a lot of prayers right now. Let's get a prayer chain going ❤️❤️❤️

6 days ago

It's been the hardest last few days and we appreciate the prayers, love, and support so freaking much. As of currently Orion is doing so well that he is able to get his feeds through an NG tube. He has a collapsed portion of his upper right lobe of his lung so a procedure to reinflate it is being considered if other measures do not work. Other than that it is anticipated they he could be extubated before Friday. Keep the prayers coming so we can bring our happy little guy home soon❤️

5 days ago

Update: As of this morning Orion has been able to tolerate decreases in the ventilator settings. Fingers crossed we will continue on this path and be starting extubation tests soon to test for his readiness to get the tube out❤️ He is a tough little guy and he's making amazing progress.

5 days ago

They are doing extubation tests tonight for Orion. If he passes there will be one more extubation test in the morning then the tube will be taken out tomorrow. It's going to be a big night and hopefully followed by good news❤️

4 days ago

It's been a roller coaster back and forth on progress. Get your praying hands ready because as it stands Orion is doing so much better today and is set to be extubated at noon and that's all I want for mother's day God is so good he is going to be fine ❤️❤️❤️

3 days ago

Dad humming tunes and loving on Orion so he can be kept calm as he comes off of the sedation and medications in prep for extubation. This last week has been so hard, such a rollercoaster, and full of tears. I'm so thankful for my kids to have a dedicated dad like this who refuses to leave their side.

Saturday - 3 days ago

Orion will be off the ventilator in 30 minutes!!! Best news we've had!! We are seeing if one of us can be jn the room so he can be soothed. I haven't held my baby in 4 days and I am ready to just hold him❤️

3 days ago

Orion was taken off the ventilator but it was brief and now he has been reintubated they think something more than the virus is present. We are absolutely distraught and he is back on the intubation tube again. Please just pray for our little boy and keep us in your prayers. Everything was seeming so good.

2 days ago

The pulmonologist will be in tomorrow to do Bronchoscopy while he is reintubated and more testing will be done we are an absolute mess right now and just need some time to process all of this. It hurts so bad and we just want our happy little guy back and to get through this.

2 days ago

I just want to let everyone know we appreciate you so much and all of the love and prayers. This is so hard and I've never wanted more in my life to just take it all away.

2 days ago

I'm about to let my momma bear out. I've never felt so disregarded and like they will get to my child's needs and figuring out why he isn't able to breathe without the ventilator when they get to it. I'm so disappointed. I've heard such great things about this hospital and to be honest I've had to speak up so many times for my son to get the bare minimum of care. They have trainees who can't get a vein and who do not know how to do a blood gas capillary draw on my son over and over countless times and yesterday we were told he was getting a central line to avoid this. I was just told they had too many things going on yesterday to do the central line for him.......NOT HAPPY

2 days ago

I have never felt so unapologetic about the willingness I have to fight hard for those I love or even for those who need it. I don't care how sick of me people get or feel and sometimes there is no level of calm down that I can reach. Fighting for someone is my love language. Right now in fighting to advocate for my son and for him to get the best medical care I can get him, I hear a lot of calm down, think positive. It comes from the best of intentions, I understand that, but also understand that if you were him right now you would hope that someone would fight for you like that. Today I'm so thankful for my babies and I hope they know that there is nothing I wouldn't do for them and in the midst of being told to just calm down and be compliant I never will. The day that each of them were growing in utero was the day that my love and willingness to fight hard for them knew no boundaries. Today during resident rounds I was part of the meeting and I said, "I know I have picked brains and been so full of questions and mentioning possibilities but it is to help and today I want to know what would be your best treatment and exploratory plan if that was your child in his predicament?" I won't back down. It's not in my DNA to just take we don't know for an answer. I would do this for any of my babies and possibly even you.

2 days ago

After being here for 8 days at UC Davis Children's Hospital with our baby intubated extubated then reintubated, five days with the ventilator, they have finally put a central line in for easy lab and medication access. They have also started IV steroid and reactive airway disease treatment...8 days it took for steroids to be started for lung and bronchial inflammation. Ideally sooner would have been amazing it was discussed when we first got here...at least now there are things happening. As of now they suspect yes he got RSV and Rhinovirus followed by bronchiolitis from the viruses and atlectasis of the upper right lung lobe. The atelectsasis has improved but now they suspect underlying malacia or reactive airway disease. I say this to say when you have a loved one in the hospital don't stop asking questions or advocating.

1 day ago

Bronchioscopy between 1 pm and 3 pm today for Orion. FINALLY!!! This will be to diagnose and possibly inflate the atelectasis in his right lung. They will be taking secretion samples and checking for airway abnormalities. I pray so hard that we get answers Such good news today. He is also on low ventilator settings and tolerating it very well. We appreciate the prayers so much please keep praying.

1 day ago

Update: It's been another long day but the Bronchoscopy revealed that Orion has congenital Tracheobronchomalacia. He was born with a mild floppy airway basically. It is exacerbated by respiratory viruses and illnesses. They think he will grow out of it however the future is uncertain. As of now they plan to attempt another extubation in a few days. He will be extubated from the ventilator to BiPaP. Then he will be gradually decreased from BiPap to CPaP then to a high flow nasal canula. If the extubation isn't successful then once reintubated he will go to the Operating Room with an ENT for further diagnostic of the lower airway. There is also possible genetic disorder testing in the near furture. Not the plans we were hoping to hear. Keep the prayers coming we just want to bring our baby home healthy like he was just days prior to getting sick.

12 hrs ago (5/13/25 2:50pm CST)

Huge thank you to Matt who works in Radiology at UC Davis and is a volunteer Native American chaplain. He came by yesterday and sang songs and prayer with Orion. It was amazing and super powerful. It was very healing to us as well. I wanted to share that shortly after answers started flowing in and today has been a good day full of so much good news. Orion loves the bear song. He was fairly sleepy but when Matt sang the bear song he opened his eyes wide awake and started moving around vigorously. He will be back today. I can't explain how spiritually uplifting what he does is you would have to be here to experience it. Orion is definitely not the baby tunes and white noise machine kind of baby he wants to hear Native American songs❤️

5/13/25 10:50am

Orion has become Mr. Houdini on the PICU unit. He has gotten extremely clever at slipping his pulse oximeter off of his toe. Even while being intubated he has been known to pull it off with his other foot using his toes and will smile after he does it. Some other stunts he has tried include: attempting to gator roll with the tube in, tightly gripping the tube, and arching his back and managing to scoot down in his bed. He is always up to something. Everyone keeps saying he is such a strong baby for a 4 month old. He is fierce and clever and it gives us so much hope because he definitely is a fighter and so full of personality

5/13/25 11:50am