I am making this GoFundMe on behalf of my daughter Courtney, son-in-law Dennis, and newest third grandchild Ryan (2 months).

In early January 2025, Courtney and Dennis found out they were expecting baby #3 and were overfilled with joy, as were we! Their other two children were excited to bring a new sibling into the family.

The day after Mother's Day on 5/12/25, Courtney had her anatomy scan in which she stated would be "the best late Mother's Day gift". That day their world would forever change. The sonographer had discovered that their baby boy had a congenital heart disease (CHD). They asked if Courtney and Dennis wanted to continue the pregnancy and they knew without a doubt that was the only option. They knew God gave them this child for a reason and put their faith in God and each other that everything would be okay.

Courtney was sent to a specialist to confirm the CHD. Baby Ryan was officially diagnosed with Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome and Pulmonary Atresia with Intact Ventricular Septum. She was referred to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin from that point on. Courtney was labeled as a high risk pregnancy and had a lot of extra ultrasound appointments and meetings to prepare and plan for what life would be like for baby Ryan and her family once he was born.

Here is a brief explanation of day to day events that does not include everything that happened throughout each day. These include things such as setbacks, titrating medications, new medications, lowering medications, new IV lines, new ART lines, tests for bacteria due to higher temps, etc.

On 9/24/25, Courtney and Dennis went in for a scheduled induction and baby Ryan was born! Mom had a few minutes with him before he was taken to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). Since then, Ryan has been in the care of the hospital every day.

*9/30/25, Ryan went to the cath lab to have a PDA stent placed.

*10/2/25 Ryan was extubated and mom+dad were getting ready to meet with the home care team!

*10/3/25 In the early morning, Ryan became hypothermic, with poor tone, pallor and labored respirations. Labs were collected, CPAP support was given, and Ryan was emergently re-intubated.

*Ryan was placed on the heart transplant list as a precautionary. Courtney and Dennis were hopeful for Ryan to continue down the path of the Glenn and Fontan surgeries. The doctors agreed and they slowly tried to progress him to not needing as much support and have his body show that he could continue to the next stage. The next few weeks were battles between medications, feedings, NIRs, etc.

*10/22/25 The doctors started to ramp up his daily goals. They started low feedings at 5ml. Ryan had daily increases by 5ml, sometimes two times a day if he was tolerating the previously increased milk feeding. By 10/31 he was at 65ml feeds. The doctors had decreased and ended his morphine drip and switched him to methadone. He also got a new, big boy bed! On 11/2/25 Ryan hit his feeding goal of 80ml but was having quite a few episodes of throwing up.

*11/3/25 Courtney says she had an off feeling about the day. Ryan was throwing up more and everyone suspected withdrawal symptoms from the medications he was on for so long and then weaned off of. At 7pm during shift change, the nurse was doing routine cares and was trying to get the pulse ox to read. It would not pick up anything, Ryan had no pulse. A code blue was called and Ryan received 5 minutes of CPR. Thankfully they were able to bring him back. After discussing the situation with mom and dad who had just witnessed the most traumatic event of their lives, it was decided that Ryan would have an emergency ECMO performed.

*11/5/25 Ryan went into surgery for an SVAD device. He also had abdominal exploration due to ascites and received a stomach drain.

*11/6/25 Ryan got his chest closed

*11/7/25 Ryan had a small 30 second seizure he was able to pull himself out of. They reopened his chest at bedside in the evening.

*11/14/25 Ryan had his chest closed again in the evening. The following days were about healing and getting bleeding under control and better labs.

*11/16/25 The oxygenator from the ECMO machine was taken off. Ryan was given a paralytic to reduce his movement to get control of bleeding.

*11/17/25 They stopped the paralytic

*11/18/25 Restart feeds at 5ml. Wean the ventilator settings!

*11/19/25 Ryan had two chest tubes taken out and his JP drain. Upped feeds to 10ml. Foley taken out. Methadone started. Ventilator settings down again. Courtney got to hold him! Plans to extubate tomorrow! Ryan was given sprint tests on the ventilator to assess his readiness for extubation.

*11/20/25 Ryan's heart medline was taken out. Feeds were held today for extubation. Ryan was extubated in the late morning. Started on CPAP.

*11/21/25 Ryan began vomiting a lot after extubation on 11/20 and throughout the night. A stomach ultrasound was ordered and it was thought that he had pyloric stenosis. After further analysis, they deemed he didn't meet the criteria quite yet for it to be definitively pyloric stenosis. They removed his NG tube and placed an NJ tube instead, as his stomach wasn't tolerating feeds. Ryan also had his last chest tube removed today.

11/22/25 Ryan is tolerating being extubated very well! Mom and dad are so relieved! Ryan is continuously having high blood pressure which they have been trying to get under control with little to no avail. They are doing an ultrasound of his kidneys today. He is a happy, comfortable boy! If Ryan continues to tolerate feeds, he will be reactivated on the transplant list. His spot was previously paused on 11/3 due to being unstable.

Throughout his journey this far, Ryan has had good days and he has had bad days. There have been a lot of steps forward just to take a few steps back. All of this has taken an immense toll on Courtney and Dennis mentally, physically, and financially. Unfortunately, they didn't get the outcome they were hoping for which was to have Ryan have surgeries to repair his heart defect. Ryan has shown that he needs to go a different route, which is a heart transplant. Ryan will continue to be in the hospital while he awaits a transplant to become available.

If you would please consider donating, sharing, or even sending prayers to Courtney, Dennis and their family. Donations would help the financial burden they face while going through one of the most difficult times in their lives.

Funds would go towards their bills, groceries, unexpected costs, or even a fun outing or two for their other two children who are also enduring a hard time in their lives.

Thank you for taking the time to read Ryan's story and be a part of his journey!