On August 26th, 2025 my sister, Bridget gave birth to her son Cain Anthony Escalona. Bridget is an army veteran and her husband, Irvin, is still active duty. Cain was born slightly early at 37 weeks because her water had broken and they wanted to ensure the least risk of infection. A week before she had him, she was informed he had IUGR meaning he was small and no longer growing well. Prior to this, Cain and this pregnancy had been well and without any complications. After Cain was born, he was doing well. Though on the small side, he was strong and from what everyone was seeing, healthy. Drs noticed he may have an issue with his eyes but would have to wait until he was a bit bigger to get a better picture of what was going on. Cain was breastfeeding successfully but was losing weight so when they were discharged he needed to be seen quickly and often by a pediatrician to measure his weight and progress. Cain continued to nurse, grow, then lose weight for a couple weeks. During this time, my sister became sick, the first time about a week after having Cain with fever and chills similar to the flu. After an initial ER visit she was diagnosed with endometritis from retained products of conception and was given 2 antibiotics. She began to feel better (no fever, regained strength) until the following week when her fever reappeared and continued to increase. She was admitted to the hospital for 3 days to get IV fluids, antibiotics, and monitor her blood pressure because it was severely low and she was borderline septic. After Bridget was discharged, Cain quickly started having issues that led Bridget and her husband to take him to the emergency room where he was diagnosed failure to thrive on September 17th, 2025. Early that next morning, while at the ER Cain went into cardiac shock for the first time and was airlifted from Watertown to the Upstate Golisano PICU in Syracuse. He coded again upon first arriving at the hospital where he was thankfully resuscitated again and the staff worked hard to get him and keep him stable. He was intubated and sedated for many days so his body could work to heal the damage that had occurred during these cardiac episodes. During this stay, it was found that Cain had a coarctication of the aorta (narrowing of the aorta) which was causing blood pressure issues leading to cardiac failure. He was kept stable in Syracuse until he could be transferred to Rochester Golisano for open heart surgery to repair the coarctication. While at the PICU in Syracuse, Bridget began having symptoms of her own again and was admitted to the ER for high fever, low blood pressure, and bad O2 saturation. No antibiotics were working, Bridget saw many specialists, and was being treated for sepsis. She was diagnosed with septic pelvic thrombophlebitis. She received more antibiotics and blood thinner shots. She was discharged the same day Cain was transferred to Rochester so she could go with him. Cain’s aortic repair took place on October 2nd and Bridget and Cain stayed there until December 19th due to a complicated recovery. During this time, Cain suffered from chylous effusion, hypertension and difficulty eating. During this stay Bridget was again admitted to the ER and had a D&C procedure done under the suspicion that this continuing issue was due to the endometritis. After a few days, she was discharged and these symptoms ceased. Later during this stay Bridget was sent to the ER again for swollen knuckles hives where she was told it could be a flare up from a potential autoimmune disease. She was given medication and has since had a significant decrease in these symptoms. It was during this same stay that Cain was found to have mid-aortic syndrome and blindness along with and maybe due to a rare genetic mutation. Irvin, traveled back and forth from Rochester to Fort Drum regularly to visit them while also caring for their pets and their toddler, Julianna. Cain was able to be home from December 19th until January 3rd when he was readmitted to the Rochester hospital for difficulty breathing and reaccumulating effusion. Increasing his meds helped and they were discharged on January 8th. An increase in Cain’s hypertension (exceeding the 200s) led to being readmitted to the PICU in Syracuse on February 26th where his meds were adjusted again and he was discharged on the 1st of March. On March 16th, Cain was admitted for a G-tube placement to replace the NG tube he had been using since his first hospital stay. Surgery went well though he was found to have another effusion that had reaccumulated so his meds were increased again and one blood pressure medication was stopped. He was discharged the 19th of March. Today on March 25, 2026, Cain is being readmitted for hypertension, again exceeding 200. These blood pressure issues will continue until he is big enough and old enough to have surgery for his mid-aortic syndrome so currently the goal is keeping him stable and as healthy as possible so he can.

Since August of 2025, my sister, and her family have had their lives turned upside down. From celebrating her baby shower with family and friends the week before Cain’s arrival to continued, stressful hospital stays, the past several months have been incredibly difficult to manage. Unfortunately he medical bills have continued to stack up on top of everything else they are dealing with. They are grateful that leadership has allowed Irvin to be with his family for many extended periods of time during all of this but now with increasing pressure from external situations, their situation continues to evolve. Cain has seen doctors and specialists several times each and every week that requires consistent long travel and stays. His medications are not completely covered by insurance so much has been out of pocket costs for their family. Bridget has been unable to return to work due to the continuing needs of Cain and will most likely be unable to for a significant amount of time going forward. Any help would be greatly appreciated and would make a difference to them during this transition in their lives.