Support Mitchell and Kayla with their loss of Anya.

Mitchell Kowalski is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

As I sit down at home by myself right now on the day of my daughter Anya's scheduled and expected delivery, I say with very heavy heart, that myself and Kayla (the mother of Anya) have experienced the most horrific thing that any parent could ever deal with in their entire lives. The following is my story..

To start, I just want to express that Kayla and I have gone through so much in terms of making sure that Anya was going to be born as healthy as possible, and was very, very closely monitored. This several forms of genetic testing, labs, blood work, multiple appointments a week including very frequent ultrasounds to make sure everything was completely okay.

February 11th Kayla went to her regular non-stress test, and Anya did absolutely fabulous!

On February 12th, Kayla and I decided to treat ourselves with a celebratory meal from DoorDash, we were in the final stretch, just few days before Kayla was scheduled to be induced into labor. While we were eating, she explained to me that Anya wasn't nearly as rambunctious and kicking like she normally was. While this was concerning for Kayla, I do what anybody else would do, scour the internet to figure what's the reason for less movement. I just figured that this was Anya shifting, since Kayla was pretty late into her pregnancy, we had figured well, maybe she had dropped, and doesn't have as much room now. All of Kaylas appointments and all the testing that was done, everything looked completely amazing at all times. Around 3am, Kayla had woken me up and told me, well she doesn't seem to be moving much at all really, there was a slight movement, but again, I just figured Anya was just sleeping, I spent time to reassure and calm her. Kayla had her last ultrasound appointment scheduled in the morning, which was just only now a few hours away, so we were going to be certain that everything was addressed.

Kayla decided to let me sleep in. I woke up on February 13th 9am, with my mother waking me up in my room, in my house, to help me finish preparing our house for Anya. It was a really nice surprise, and super thoughtful. I looked over at my phone and noticed a missed call from both Kayla and my mother around the same time. I said good morning to my mother, and she asked me what she needed to help with. Before I had a chance to really say anything, I got another phone call from Kayla. I answered, and she was in complete panic. During her ultrasound appointment the technician wasn't able to observe nearly any movements from Anya, and claimed that Anya's heartrate was very low, and that she had to immediately go to our labor hospital. Kayla had to drive herself to the hospital we were supposed to go to on the 16th, three days early, in absolute panic.

I immediately called over to my mother, and asked her to immediately drop me off at the hospital, which she did. I met up with Kayla in the lobby, and we got ourselves checked in. Once we got a room, they immediately checked Kayla to see what was happening. During their examination, they noticed no movements at all from Anya, and decided to do an immediate c-section. Still, me now being worried but also excited for our daughter, my mother reassured me that this happens, and sometimes babies can't move much once they're big enough. A rush of doctors and nurses came in and immediately wheeled off Kayla to surgery, I was told I had to wait in the lobby while the procedure took place, since they did not have time to do a spinal anesthetic over a general, it was an emergency, that's completely okay. I remained positive and optimistic, and so excited to meet my daughter.

Around 30 minutes later, I was called into the surgery room, where a doctor and a surgeon had to explain to me, that Kayla's c-section was a complete success. But that tone was very short lived.. They brought me into a private room, and informed me that Anya's heart had stopped right before the procedure started, and once they rescued her, they were able to get her heart starting again, but that they were still working on her, but that Anya was struggling to breath on her own, but they had it controlled thankfully. They told me that they saw abnormalities with the placenta that they've never seen before in their careers. Immediately my heart sunk straight to the ground. I knew what this meant, and they were trying to be gentle about it. Something had happened, something very seriously wrong, that they couldn't explain to me. They brought me upstairs to the incubation area for newborns.

As I walk with the doctor, he brought me to my daughter, who was hooked up to several machines that another hospital immediately showed up for to stabilize her. As many of my friends and family know me, they know I'm not the most fond of how newborn babies look, but when my eyes locked onto Anya's eyes, my heart absolutely melted. She looked perfect, beautiful, she had Kaylas cute nose and hair, she had my eyes, she looked completely normal and perfect. I immediately was brought to tears, she looked exactly how me and Kayla had always pictured her.

As I get to touch her and get a feel for Anya, I asked the doctors to bluntly tell me exactly what's wrong, and if my daughter was going to be okay. They gave me what I asked for, they bluntly told me that unfortunately there was too much damage taken place trying to stabilize her. I was in complete shock just from hearing it, and couldn't let go of Anya. They shortly told me that Kayla will be waking up from her anesthetic, and that I needed to break the news to her.

This is where it gets much harder for me to tell the story to you. I went up to Kayla, with a smile, along with her Kayla's mom, gave her a kiss, and told her that I loved her so much. She was really worried, and just asked "where's my baby?". I had to look at her in the eyes and tell her, "Kayla, there was some issues, they're working on her right now, but please don't worry, I'll take care of it". I couldn't bear to tell her all of the details, she had just come out of surgery, blood all over the place, but despite all of that, and the pain, Kayla was more focused on just seeing her baby. The doctors then wheeled Kayla, and took me upstairs to see Anya. At this point, several doctors and nurses were around us, apologizing to me and Kayla. She asked what was going on. I told her the truth, that Anya had complications, and that she was very, very sick. We talked to the doctors of the odds of her recovering, which we were given an honest answer, there was no viability in her future even if she were to have extreme and permanent interventions, they told us she will most likely never be able to breathe on her own again, talk, walk, or support herself, ever, that the severity of the time and her blood work was doubled the normal severity. They told us there could've been hope if it was mild or moderate, but it was far from it. Mind you, two days prior, she was extremely healthy.

This is all very painful to even type, but to summarize it, my family and Kayla's family, we had to quickly make our hellos, as well as our goodbyes to Anya on the same day.. As the day continued to see how it would go, the doctors and nurses did everything to make sure Anya had her best opportunity with mom and dad. At 7:55pm, while still in our arms, Anya had passed away.

Me and Kayla sacrificed everything we had for Anya. She is so incredibly loved. I will always love my daughter, no matter how short of a time it was with her. I can't even type the last details after this. But it was completely soul crushing, everything. I was receiving messages from friends congratulating me and how excited they were, and telling me how we were going to make amazing parents. I just didn't have the heart to say anything at all at the time. My whole world is shattered, and so is Kayla's. What makes it worse, is that Kayla has to bear that scar to serve as a reminder.

Kayla and I have experienced the most horrific thing we will ever have happen to us in our adult lives. This is more than losing a house, I'd sacrifice everything I have including myself to have my daughter back in her mothers arms.

As my friends and family both know me for this, I hate to ask anybody for anything, but this is the most vulnerable moment of my life, as well as Kayla's. We need time to mentally recover from this, we need time for Kayla to heal from a c-section from a baby we no longer have the chance to raise into the amazing adult we know she would've been.

During this heartbreaking time for us, I'm desperately reaching out for support, I know my family would help, but they've also suffered heavily from this news too.

With that being said, any contributions at all, big or small, prayers, thoughts, anything, will be severely appreciated to give us time to cope with this. Any contributions will be proceeded towards Kayla's medical expenses, as well as Anya's. Recovery expenses, expenses we made for Anya. The hospital staff did such an amazing job for all of us, and their actions will never go unnoticed. Thank you so much Bellevue family. Any help will hopefully alleviate some of the financial stress so we can focus on ourselves, mourn and heal without a financial burden.

Anya, I know my time was short with you, but just know, we will always love you to the moon and back.

Update 2/18/25 1:03AM EST:

I just want to thank everyone who's reached out to me to send their kind words, thoughts and prayers, and their support to me. I also want to thank those who contributed, whether it be family, friends. Even friends from far away, friends I haven't seen or spoken to since high school, and kind hearted individuals, you are all so amazing, and there's nothing I can do to thank you all enough. I had to walk away from my computer and phone today because I just couldn't handle this, but I came back to see this much support on here and Facebook, it's incredible, I truly feel blessed. Kayla and I are eternally grateful while we go through this hard time. I'm truly in shock. I will do my best to respond to each and every one of you, though it might take some time at the end of the day to do so. I also just wanted to share with everyone pictures, it will take some time to gather on one device, but I'd like to start off by showing you the room we made for her.