Help Baby Mads with recovery from Congenital Heart Disease Surgery

Our names are Jacque and Vincent. We are Baby Maddox’s parents, and we are writing with a heartfelt plea to help support our little one in his recovery from CHD surgery.

Baby Mads came into the world in July of this year at 33 weeks and 2 days old, at a whopping 4 lbs 3.2 inches. He was seven weeks early and raring to meet the world sooner rather than later. His birth journey was anything but smooth; three days before he was born, he was diagnosed with an arachnoid cyst in his brain, and then he decided it was time to meet his parents.

We spent a few days at Alaska Regional with him after his first helicopter ride (in utero), and he was born having a hard time breathing. They were trying to help Mads with his lungs, and when that happened, he aspirated, and we very nearly lost our little one. We were moved to Providence, where we spent 26 days in the NICU, and he went undiagnosed for his heart defect.

In the plethora of follow-ups that ensued about a week and a half after discharge on August 13th, and a diagnosis of failure to thrive, he was also diagnosed with an AP Window that was the size of a nickel (almost the circumference of one of Baby Mads’ little wrists). We made the difficult decision to travel to Stanford Hospital for open-heart surgery; the alternative was losing our little love.

On September 16th, he underwent a sternotomy that opened his little chest, and his heart and lungs were hooked up to a machine that did the work for him while our surgeons' deft hands took on the enormous and heavy task of repairing a tiny preemie heart.

He came through with flying colors but still has a long road ahead. We are grateful for any help to assist with his medical expenses (of which there are many) as I’m sure you can understand a NICU stay and open-heart surgery in the first three months of life is extremely expensive. Thank you from our family to yours for the love and support!!