Baby Atlas Kai was born at 38 weeks to dual military parents stationed overseas on January 5, 2025. He was the sweetest, calmest baby. Everything seemed to be going well until 24 hours after his birth, he started screaming and turning blue. He was rushed to the NICU, struggling to breathe, where he was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. Doctors struggled to find the cause. After fighting for his life, surviving resuscitation multiple times, he was airlifted to a different hospital where he was put on an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) device to pump and oxygenate his blood. Doctors could find no explainable defect that was causing his struggle to breathe. Atlas' condition continued to rapidly deteriorate. On January 21, 2025, Atlas passed away in his mother's arms after 16 days fighting for his survival. A lung biopsy revealed he had an extremely rare genetic disease affecting the FOXN1 gene called Alveolar Capillary Dysplasia (ACD), which has a 100% mortality rate. Babies usually survive anywhere from a few hours to a few months depending on the severity and struggle to properly oxygenate their blood. ACD, which was first discovered in the 1980s, has only a few hundred documented cases; however, it is believed that there are many more undocumented cases occurring. Currently, research is being conducted at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

All donations will be given to the ACD Association in direct support of this research. Please honor the memory of baby Atlas and support research to find a cure, so no other parents have to go through this terrible experience.