Support for Whittier Family's Medical Recovery

Please support the Whittier family financially recover from Clifford's medical emergency.

Audrey and Alex have experienced the unthinkable. Their son, Clifford, only 18 months old, went into respiratory failure and was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit on May 25. After days of testings and diagnostics, it was revealed that Clifford has an extremely rare and life-threatening congenital birth anomaly, congenital tracheal stenosis. The amazing doctors at Colorado Children’s Hospital were able to stabilize Clifford and perform a life-saving surgery to widen his trachea. Although Clifford is not yet breathing on his own, the surgery went well and he is on his way to recovery. The Whittier’s still face a long road ahead of them as they navigate the news of Clifford’s anomaly and face the financial reality of spending weeks in the ICU, surgery, diagnostics, ambulances, etc.

The Whittier's need the support of their community now more than ever. All donations will go directly to the family to cover medical expenses incurred.

Clifford's Story, as told by his father Alex

On Wednesday night Audrey called me home early to help tend to Cliff. He had been inconsolable and his screams seamed to continue to ramp up throughout the day. By the time I got home it seemed as though he couldn't catch his breath. I was able to sooth him a bit while Audrey called his physicians. Gratefully, they suggested that we take him to the emergency clinic in Wheat Ridge.

On initial inspection, the clinic doctors discovered that Cliff had less than 50% oxygen in his lungs. They called an ambulance to get him to the nearest hospital. Shortly after arriving to the ER they discovered that Cliff's left lung collapsed and that they couldn't give him the necessary care. The next step was to take him to the Children's Hospital in Aurora - and we are so glad that we ended up there.

After a second ambulance ride we were given a plan: Cliff was meant to have a chest tube installed which would allow his lungs to start working as they are meant to. We all thought this was the end of the nightmare. Unfortunately, it really was just the beginning. Hours after the chest tube was installed the doctors and nurses noted that Cliff wasn't bouncing back, rather getting worse. His second lung had collapsed. Cliff had to be intubated to save his life.

The procedure did save his life but it didn't fix the problem. He still wasn't receiving the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that he needed. The choice to put him on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) therapy was delivered to us as the only resource to save his life. ECMO is essentially a machine that removes blood from the body, then removes carbon dioxide from the blood cells and replaces it with oxygen. The procedure was a success and our year and a half year old baby no longer had to breathe through damaged airways to stay alive. This victory was short lived as the reality of his condition really began to set in. We saved his life, but we didn't know from what. Meanwhile he is receiving regular blood transfusions amidst a slew of drugs, intubation, feeding tubes, paralysis, sedation, and about every other stress you can imagine.

As a result of all the trauma and mucus in his lungs, CT scans were inconclusive and exploratory actions weren't much better. We had a long 48 hour waiting period just to learn what the issue was. Once doctors were able to gain access via surgery to his trachea, they were able to confirm the suspicion that Clifford had enclosed 360 degree cartilage rings around his trachea - typically they are 270 degrees to leave room for the airway. This is a very rare condition. The initial thought from the surgeon was that this diagnosis had only been addressed around 100 times and fortunately, the doctor on staff, our doctor, has corrected 80 of them.

Once confirmed actions moved swiftly to alleviate the concern. While they were in surgery they discovered that Cliff's trachea was an internal opening of 2mm - typically they are 12mm at his age. Aside from luck and a strong sense of being a protective mom, we don't know how he had lived this long. To put it bluntly, he was breathing out of a single bar straw.

The surgery was a success! They removed 15mm of his trachea and sewed him back up. He has always been a fighter but now he has a crazy battle scar to live up to.

We are out of the woods but we are still on the mountain. ECMO is an incredibly complex treatment and coming off of it is just as challenging to approach. Again, we are grateful to be at the hospital that we are - it has the worlds leading ECMO program and a team of incredible doctors. The path forward isn't going to be textbook. As mentioned, Cliff is a fighter, so much so that they are hoping that we can come off of ECMO this week and allow the breathing tube and Cliff's muscles to do the work for the first time in nearly a week.

Even in the best case scenario, we are expecting to be in the ICU for the next month. We are calling out to our community near and far for all of the love, support, and care that you can offer. It's a shame the medical industry in this country leaves so many of us with a big question mark of how to pay for the care that is received so we are asking that if you can, you please help us answer the mail. What isn't a shame in this scenario is that the medical field in the US is really the only reason our baby is alive today.