Support for Baby Jude & family

Hello everyone. I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with Jude. Jude was diagnosed with congenital heart disease when I was 26 weeks pregnant with him. His diagnosis is critical aortic stenosis & mitral regurgitation with an intact atrial septum. This combination of defects means that his heart is not supplying blood through his body the way it should. This news was devastating and we were not given a good outcome. At one point we were asked to terminate the pregnancy, and we were also told the he might not survive the pregnancy.  We began seeing a cardiologist at UVA hospital who has been nothing short of amazing. He eventually contacted doctors in Boston, MA to discuss an intrauterine procedure called aortic valvuloplasty. In short, they would place a balloon in his aortic valve to open it and promote better blood flow. We went to Boston in April and did the procedure. It was scary and had a lot of risks but we knew we had to try. It was successful but unfortunately didn’t show a lot of improvement during the weeks to follow. Jude continued to grow in utero despite restricted blood flow. Unfortunately I was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 37 weeks. I ended up delivering Jude via c-section just a few days later due to high blood pressures. Jude came out screaming and ready to fight. Jude is now 3 days old and has already had a roller coaster experience with life. He had two catheter procedures done at two days old, and unfortunately one of the procedures made his situation a little worse. We’ve had some good news and a lot of bad. Jude’s current state is that he is on a ventilator, he is not able to eat or be completely awake. He is stable but his doctors don’t know how long that will last. We’ve been told that is would be in his best interest to be added to the heart transplant list just in case things were to go that way. Steven and I have officially given permission and signed forms to do so.  Jude is receiving all of his care at UVA which is almost two hours away from our home.  We don’t know what the future holds, but we know this is going to stress us not only emotionally & physically but also financially. The last thing that Steven and I wanted to do was to ask for help, but we understand now just how serious this is. Steven and I have worked very hard to be able to have a family and it is so hard to see our baby in the position he is in. Any funds will help us with gas, food costs, housing costs, and everything else that keeps us afloat. We ask that you read our story and pass it along. We are grateful for anything that is given to us.