Step up for the Jensens

Early Days

Melanie and Jimmy first met in Salzburg, Austria in 2015. Though with radically different professional lives – Jimmy as a professional baseball player and coach, and Melanie as a Medical Researcher – they had found their life partners in one another. Loyal to one another during a five-year long-distance relationship, Melanie and Jimmy married in 2021.

Melanie has dedicated her adult life to the medical field, where she studied Molecular Biology with a focus on Immunology. Passionate about advancing research in Immunology, she went on to do her Ph.D.

Proud Parents-to-be

In October 2023, the Jensens learned Melanie was pregnant and due to have their first child in June 2024.

Melanie and Jimmy could not be more excited, and 2024 was set to be the best year yet for the Jensen Family! After 6 years of tirelessly working on her research project, Melanie would complete her Ph.D. Jimmy had new and exciting coaching prospects on the horizon. They had just moved into a new home. And, of course, they were expanding their family later in the year.

February specifically was supposed to be exceptionally momentous for the Jensens. Melanie was set to defend her thesis and finally receive her Ph.D.

A Complicated Pregnancy

To say that Melanie had a challenging pregnancy would simply not do it justice. Nausea and sickness required multiple hospital visits because she could not keep any food or liquids in her system.

Ecstatic to have reached the 20-week milestone, Melanie and Jimmy eagerly awaited the scan where they would see their unborn baby and every bit of their anatomy. It was during this scan that everything changed. Melanie’s challenging pregnancy became even more complicated within minutes of the appointment.

Their doctor had discovered a cyst in their little baby’s brain and could see that their baby was measuring undersize in every way. What this meant was completely unknown, so the doctors required Melanie to undergo weekly tests to monitor the baby’s growth and the brain cyst.

The very next day, Jimmy was scheduled to leave Austria to coach overseas. With a baby on the way, the Jensens knew they would need money to support their expanding family. Jimmy departed Melanie’s side with very mixed emotions and an extremely heavy heart. So many questions. So much uncertainty. Just days after Jimmy had left Austria, Melanie’s condition worsened, requiring her to be hospitalized again. Jimmy rushed home to be with Melanie.

A couple of days later, during a checkup on the baby’s cyst, doctors discovered that Melanie’s blood pressure was critically high, her red blood cell and platelet counts were extremely low, her kidneys were failing, her liver was failing, and she had fluid in her lungs. Things were progressing rapidly and seriously.

Saving Melanie’s Life

With little time to diagnose, doctors suspected that Melanie had an incredibly rare disease called congenital (hereditary) Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (cTTP) triggered by the pregnancy which also caused severe preeclampsia.

Doctors were left with no choice but to perform an emergency C-section at 23 weeks gestation to save Melanie’s life. Their daughter, ⁠Jamie Sophie Jensen, was born at 7:53 pm on February 29th, 2024. Weighing 355 grams (12.5 ounces). Jamie is the second-smallest baby to have been born at this hospital in Salzburg.

The average length of a pregnancy in Austria is 39 weeks 3 days. Jamie was delivered at 23 weeks, making her extremely premature. Babies born between 22 and 25 weeks are considered borderline viable and have a low chance of survival. In some countries, doctors don’t even try to save babies born as early as Jamie.

Baby Jamie’s Prognosis

Right now, Jamie’s prognosis is not fully known. The cyst on her brain, her premature birth, and her extraordinarily low birth weight mean that Jamie has a very tough road ahead.

She remains in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) under 24/7 care, faces difficulties with breathing and digesting food, and her weight continues to fluctuate. Jamie is already proving that she’s a fighter, surprising doctors with her resilience every day. Overall, she is making incremental improvements and everyone remains hopeful.

Melanie’s Prognosis

Melanie’s health continues to be a major concern for the medical staff. Her condition is extremely rare with limited treatment options. cTTP is essentially a disease where Melanie’s body is unable to produce a specific protein (ADAMTS13) that helps with her blood clotting properly. The estimated prevalence of cTTP is 1 in one million (1,000,000), and Melanie’s case is the first that the medical staff in Salzburg have ever seen.

Melanie has had to do multiple rounds of plasmapheresis, a therapeutic intervention that involves the complete removal, exchange, and return of blood plasma. This invasive and intense procedure took a significant toll on Melanie’s physical and mental well-being. Since then, she has been receiving two bags of plasma transfusions every day to provide ADAMTS13 and to prevent blood clots and the destruction of her red blood cells.

While cTTP is not curable and relapses can be triggered for the rest of her life, doctors hope that Melanie’s body will self-regulate at some point and start producing ADAMTS13 on its own. Until then, Melanie, Jimmy, and baby Jamie will continue to live at the hospital as they have since February 27th.

Family Unit

Jimmy and Melanie are doing everything they can for their baby girl. First and foremost, they accept and trust that Baby Jamie is in the best possible place. They are spending as much time as they can with Jamie. They hold her as much as possible since skin-skin contact is critical for neurodevelopment and the medical team encourages this. Despite everything Melanie is experiencing herself, she is committed to producing breast milk so that Jamie can have the nutrients she needs.

Melanie and Jimmy describe Jamie as ‘feisty’, evident by her strong grip, which still does not fit around one of her parents’ fingers, though is strong enough to rip out her own breathing and feeding tubes. Jamie has already opened her eyes, an incredible milestone for a baby of her gestation.

Call to Action

The loss of income for both Melanie and Jimmy and the mounting medical bills for Melanie and Jamie’s care accrue with every day they remain in the hospital. Without having a firm diagnosis of Melanie’s condition nor knowing what lies ahead for Baby Jamie, it is unknown what other financial obligations the Jensen family may be facing.

The Jensen family needs financial support. If you have the means to do so and have it in your heart to support, this would help take away some of the burdens that the Jensen family face. No donation is too small.

Another way of helping the Jensens and others can be by donating blood or blood products. Over the last month, Melanie alone has received about 140 plasma concentrates, multiple platelet transfusions, and both Jamie and Melanie have received multiple erythrocyte transfusions.

Any way you can, please share the Jensen family’s story with others. Speaking about and sharing their story raises more awareness, which can be a powerful multiplier in providing support in such challenging and uncertain times. If you are one of faith, please pray for their healing, strength, and grace.