Support Ellie: Our Little Warrior's Medical Journey

Meet Ellie! Our little warrior of a baby girl. Ellie has been a fighter since before she was born.

At our 20 week anatomy scan we learned that she may have an aorta that was growing the wrong way. We were scheduled to meet with pediatric cardiology, but not for weeks. We ended up getting a second opinion and going forward with a lot of extra ultrasounds and echocardiograms. Due to her size in utero, they could not confirm 100% if she had a vascular ring or not.

Fast forward to 34 weeks, my blood pressure spiked and would not go down. We went to the hospital and the longest 24 hours of our life began. We were prepped for a c-section and it started out just fine. They kept checking in on me during the procedure but you could tell they were having some troubles. Eventually we saw a lifeless baby flop onto the table next to us. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life. My husband and I could barely look, but also couldn't look away. Eventually a nurse came over and explained that Ellie was having a lot of trouble. They were able to finally get her breathing and rushed her off to the NICU.

They then turned thier attention back towards me. They could not control my bleeding and I lost over half the blood in my body. I was quickly put under and my husband was rushed away.

Ellie stayed in the NICU for 17 days. She is a walking miracle that after being born lifeless she only needed 17 days to be able to come home. 17 days is not a lot compared to what some babies go through and we understand how blessed we are.

Children do not qualify for Medicaid unless they are in the NICU for 30 days. We tried to plead our case but we're denied as we were just over the threshold, even with me on maternity leave.

Not only are the medical bills from my c-section, her birth, and her NICU stay extensive, Ellie has had speech therapy, cardiology visits, echocardiograms, CTs, and now has been sick for almost a month. We are starting with the visits to observe her vascular ring. This means ENT visitw, scopes, swallow studies, outpatient and inpatient procedures and ultimately a heart surgery with at least a week inpatient stay.

We will do whatever we need to for our children and especially thier health. The health system is already sending us letters and telling us our account is overdue - they want us to take loans and credit cards out to catch up.

We figured this was worth a shot before we go down that route. We don't want anyone to feel like they need to help, just wanted to give a place where people could if they feel inclined. We mostly appreciate your prayers and we'll wishes for our strong girl.

Thank you,

Max and Rachel