Stand with Salem and Her Loving Family

My daughter, Salem, was born at 24 weeks in 2021. She had hydrocephalus, which resulted in her needing a shunt. She spent almost a year in the NICU and came home two weeks before her first birthday. She went through so many different surgeries in her first year and ended up coming home with a G-tube. Last year, she was formally diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

Salem doesn’t grow properly and struggles to hold onto weight, so she is still the size of a 9-month-old. She is also non-verbal and is not able to sit up, roll, stand, etc. She has truly had a rough life so far.

With that being said, if you know Salem, you know she is one of the HAPPIEST babies. She loves her sisters, blowing bubbles, giggling, playing with her toys, and is all around happy despite the life she’s been given. She’s a very particular baby though and will absolutely let you know when she’s not happy

On 01/08, I brought Salem to the ER because I thought she was having a seizure at home. When we got here, she was completely fine. Oxygen levels were in the low 90s, heart rate was great, temperature was great. She was herself. They moved us from triage to the back, and 12 minutes later, everything changed.

In 12 minutes, Salem’s oxygen had dropped to 32. Her heart rate was 53. Her temperature was 33.3 (they want it at 36.4). They couldn’t even find a pulse, and she was having another seizure right there on the table. It was the most terrifying thing to witness. So many people swarmed in around her, and I couldn’t do anything but back into a corner and just stare at my lifeless baby. They had to do CPR twice, and the last time it took them 10 minutes to get any reaction. 10 minutes can be so damaging to your brain/body. They also had to intubate her.

We got to the ICU around 2:30 am on 01/09, and it has been the most roller coaster of a week. She ended up having RSV, pneumonia, and H. Influenza in her lungs and blood. The admitting doctor told me she was in septic shock, cardiac arrest, and respiratory failure, and that she might not make it with how severe it was. Absolutely the most gut-wrenching thing to hear about your child.

During the last week, she has been in a medically induced coma. We were told we won’t know if any damage was done until she’s off the paralytic, but we can’t get off the paralytic until her oxygen is better, but her oxygen isn’t getting better. We have been at such a standstill ALL week with an overwhelming amount of emotions because it hurts to watch your baby be like this.

Yesterday, 01/15, she was able to come off the paralytic around 11:30 am!!! A HUGE step! What started with giving her a “break” turned into her being able to keep it off, and I’m so, so proud of her!! Now we’ll be able to see how her body is functioning and if there was any damage elsewhere.

As of this morning, she is still on high rates on the ventilator. She’s moving her eyes more and sticking her tongue out, however, she is still VERY heavily sedated. They plan to do a number of tests today also.

I’m incredibly thankful for her team she had in the ER, all the respiratory therapists, doctors, nurses, child life ladies, and specialists she’s seen. It has been such a hard journey, but they have done amazing at explaining things to us, letting us cry to them, and just holding our hands during all of this. We are ready for her to be home, and so are her sisters. They don’t understand the severity and miss her so much.

I know this was long, but if you have made it this far, please share and most importantly, please keep our family and sweet Salem in your prayers. We can use ALLLL we can get!!!

If you feel compelled to help further, it appears we may have a long road ahead of us. Ryan and I are both having to miss work to try and take care of our other 6 girls while also being by Salem’s side. ANY help would be greatly appreciated, but if all you can afford is prayers, we will be thankful for them!!!!

Thank you