Hello Family, Friends, and new Friends:

Thank you for taking the time to read this. At Dakota’s routine anatomy scan, baby Nuyen was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA). This means that the two main arteries of his heart are swapped. This condition is completely fine in the womb, but once baby is born, his blood will start pumping the opposite way, making him incompatible with life without intervention.

The plan is to have open heart surgery ASAP, where a cardiac surgeon will perform an "arterial switch operation" or "ASO" to swap those two main arteries. Baby Nuyen will be placed on heart/lung bypass during the surgery.

Over the last few months, Jeff and Dakota have met with different specialists who have all come to the same findings. They will continue care at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. TGA reconstruction is considered to be a complex surgery but pediatric cardiology has improved significantly over the last 20 years, and with this, surgical success is high. At this stage, all we can do is put our faith in the doctors and pray for the best outcome. On top of all of the medical appointments and financial concerns, they will have to relocate to St. Louis when Dakota is induced at 39 weeks.

Baby Nuyen is scheduled to be delivered at St. Louis Children’s in August. After birth, he will be taken directly to the cardiac ICU and surgery will take place as soon as his little body can tolerate it. After surgery, he will remain in CICU for ~2-4 weeks, if not longer.

Until baby Nuyen is born, Dakota will undergo multiple ultrasounds and echocardiograms. After birth, baby Nuyen will undergo similar procedures, weekly and then bi-weekly for much of the first year, stepping down over time to once a year for the rest of his life.

The estimated surgery cost is around $955,000. They do have insurance policies; however, these policies will not cover all medical bills and other out-of-pocket expenses. For all who know Jeff and Dakota, they never ask for anything and are very private people. They are emotionally and physically overwhelmed by this news, and as you can imagine, it will be financially challenging. I’ve created this GoFundMe not just for financial charity, but also to act as an avenue of emotional support. They are looking forward to baby Nuyen being on the mend after his surgery and being able to thank all of you for helping during such an overwhelming and humbling time.