Support Ella Grace's Heart Recovery

Our baby girl, Ella Grace, was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot around 24 weeks pregnant. We’ve had multiple doctor's appointments since that moment, and we’ve had many tears of joy and fear for our girl. We’ve had ups and downs along the way. We finally got to bring her home from the PICU in Lexington on June 19th, and on July 6th, we experienced the scariest thing any parents could ever imagine. She stopped breathing on us, her color changed drastically, and I couldn’t find a pulse on her. I got her to come back, and we rushed her to the ER and were sent to UK Children’s again. Since then, she’s been in the PPCU. At first, until Monday morning, she had her heart surgery to repair all the defects she had. That was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to go through, just waiting for 12 hours to see your baby again, but things went great. We’ve had some accomplishments and a few setbacks. They thought her having de-stat moments (oxygen dropping to 60) were due to her heart, but since her surgery and since getting off the vent, she has already de-stated again multiple times. So, the breathing tube is now back on, and they are taking her to the OR to make sure her airway is okay, to ensure the de-stats aren’t being caused by an issue in the airway. Her whole life has been at a hospital, and it’s hard on all of us. My husband is the only one that works, so he’s had to miss so much more than I even have, but with this surgery, we’ve both tried to be here. He deserves to be here with his daughter also because it affects him as well as it does mom.

Nothing is expected, but everything is appreciated just to help us out with food, gas, and bills while he’s taken off of work. We’ve had a few family members tell us to make one, so we figured it couldn’t hurt to try. But mostly, if anyone could just say a prayer for us and our family.