The Pulley Family
Donation protected
Hello Friends, Family & Soon-to-be-friends,
We are Scottie Miller and John & Whitney Miller. We are Holland & Arthur Pulley’s siblings and Elle & Georgia’s Aunts & Uncle. We are reaching out to everyone through GoFundMe to help raise money for our niece, Georgia. She was born a month ago and has been declared legally blind. She has a disease known as Microphthalmia. This is such a rare disease, that only a handful of hospitals treat patients diagnosed with this. Luckily, Duke is one of them. Unfortunately, Duke is out-of-network for their insurance and Georgia is in need of several procedures and specialist in the coming days, weeks and months. The money raised here will go towards medical bills for Georgia now and down the road.
When you are a close family, you know that you will do anything for them. When you are fortunate enough to be close to your siblings, your willingness to do things for them in a time of need is even greater. We are fortunate enough that this is our family. Right now, what we can offer our family is to reach out to ones we know and ask for help.
We have asked Georgia’s parents (Holland & Arthur Pulley) to share a bit more detail of the last few weeks, and what lies ahead – as they have firsthand knowledge of the doctors and procedures.
Thank you all so much in advance for your help in helping our family.
Love,
Scottie Miller
John & Whitney Miller
______________________________________________________________________________________
On September 2 we welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Georgia, into the world. We were immediately in awe of how much she looked like her big sister, Elle. Tears of happiness streamed down our faces as we knew our family was now complete with this perfect new addition.
Our focus over the next few days was just like any parents after having a new baby. The nurses coming in and out of our hospital room to check on baby and Mom, the important decisions on what food we would be eating for each meal, talking to family and friends, and trying to get what little sleep we could while still on an adrenaline rush.
Other than being small, Georgia presented herself as any healthy newborn would except she had yet to open her eyes. As each doctor and nurse came in to check on her we brought this to their attention but were told because she was born early it would just take a little extra time for her body to acclimate itself to the outside world. She passed all of her other tests and we were told we would be taking home our daughter Friday morning. The last pediatric doctor came in to give us the “all clear” when we brought up her eyes once more. She took a closer
look at Georgia’s eyes and we immediately knew something was “off”. There was also a heart murmur that had been detected that had not corrected itself since birth so we knew getting home before lunch time was out of the question. After an ultrasound of her heart and countless phone calls, an appointment was made for Georgia to be seen by a pediatric ophthalmologist the following week and a cardiologist the next month.
Thankfully we were able to take Georgia home later that day and we quickly settled into life with a newborn for the next week.
Our visit with ophthalmologist Dr. Kramer, on September 11, would prove to be a life altering visit. Instead of being told a cataract surgery to fix Georgia’s eyes is all we would need, we were given the news that Georgia has Microphthalmia, a developmental disorder of the eyes that affects approximately 10 in every 100,000 individuals. This means, in Georgia’s case, she is blind.
We were also told the only doctors that would be able to help her are at Duke Hospital in Durham, NC. Immediate shock came over us as well as sadness and anger. We spent the weekend isolating ourselves from family and friends and just taking the time to try and process the news we had been given. The next week was spent securing an appointment at Duke but also realizing Duke Hospital is
considered out of network by our insurance company. We decided to move forward with our visits at Duke because Georgia’s health can’t be delayed.
Due to her blindness, and other possible health concerns, we will be making multiple visits to Duke over the next few weeks, months and most likely years. She will face a lifetime of challenges but we are prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure she has the best care possible.
Any support given through Go Fund Me will go towards medical expenses, care and support that is needed throughout her journey. The immediate needs are an exploratory procedure to take a more detailed look at both eyes, genetic testing to determine if there are any other underlying health issues that haven’t been detected yet, prosthetics and a possible cornea transplant if she is a good candidate.
She has already had a MRI that confirmed her right eye globe is smaller than herleft and has no chance for sight. This will require a prosthetic eye that will need to be replaced every few years as she grows. The good news that we received from the MRI is that her brain is fully developed and looks great!
We have already been so touched by the love that has been shown to us and Georgia over the past 4 weeks. This is certainly a journey we never could have predicted but we know with our faith and support system we will continue to have the strength to give Georgia the best chance to live a life full of laughter, dancing, learning and adventures….and so much more!
A sincere thank you to each of you.
All the love,
Arthur and Holland Pulley
We are Scottie Miller and John & Whitney Miller. We are Holland & Arthur Pulley’s siblings and Elle & Georgia’s Aunts & Uncle. We are reaching out to everyone through GoFundMe to help raise money for our niece, Georgia. She was born a month ago and has been declared legally blind. She has a disease known as Microphthalmia. This is such a rare disease, that only a handful of hospitals treat patients diagnosed with this. Luckily, Duke is one of them. Unfortunately, Duke is out-of-network for their insurance and Georgia is in need of several procedures and specialist in the coming days, weeks and months. The money raised here will go towards medical bills for Georgia now and down the road.
When you are a close family, you know that you will do anything for them. When you are fortunate enough to be close to your siblings, your willingness to do things for them in a time of need is even greater. We are fortunate enough that this is our family. Right now, what we can offer our family is to reach out to ones we know and ask for help.
We have asked Georgia’s parents (Holland & Arthur Pulley) to share a bit more detail of the last few weeks, and what lies ahead – as they have firsthand knowledge of the doctors and procedures.
Thank you all so much in advance for your help in helping our family.
Love,
Scottie Miller
John & Whitney Miller
______________________________________________________________________________________
On September 2 we welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Georgia, into the world. We were immediately in awe of how much she looked like her big sister, Elle. Tears of happiness streamed down our faces as we knew our family was now complete with this perfect new addition.
Our focus over the next few days was just like any parents after having a new baby. The nurses coming in and out of our hospital room to check on baby and Mom, the important decisions on what food we would be eating for each meal, talking to family and friends, and trying to get what little sleep we could while still on an adrenaline rush.
Other than being small, Georgia presented herself as any healthy newborn would except she had yet to open her eyes. As each doctor and nurse came in to check on her we brought this to their attention but were told because she was born early it would just take a little extra time for her body to acclimate itself to the outside world. She passed all of her other tests and we were told we would be taking home our daughter Friday morning. The last pediatric doctor came in to give us the “all clear” when we brought up her eyes once more. She took a closer
look at Georgia’s eyes and we immediately knew something was “off”. There was also a heart murmur that had been detected that had not corrected itself since birth so we knew getting home before lunch time was out of the question. After an ultrasound of her heart and countless phone calls, an appointment was made for Georgia to be seen by a pediatric ophthalmologist the following week and a cardiologist the next month.
Thankfully we were able to take Georgia home later that day and we quickly settled into life with a newborn for the next week.
Our visit with ophthalmologist Dr. Kramer, on September 11, would prove to be a life altering visit. Instead of being told a cataract surgery to fix Georgia’s eyes is all we would need, we were given the news that Georgia has Microphthalmia, a developmental disorder of the eyes that affects approximately 10 in every 100,000 individuals. This means, in Georgia’s case, she is blind.
We were also told the only doctors that would be able to help her are at Duke Hospital in Durham, NC. Immediate shock came over us as well as sadness and anger. We spent the weekend isolating ourselves from family and friends and just taking the time to try and process the news we had been given. The next week was spent securing an appointment at Duke but also realizing Duke Hospital is
considered out of network by our insurance company. We decided to move forward with our visits at Duke because Georgia’s health can’t be delayed.
Due to her blindness, and other possible health concerns, we will be making multiple visits to Duke over the next few weeks, months and most likely years. She will face a lifetime of challenges but we are prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure she has the best care possible.
Any support given through Go Fund Me will go towards medical expenses, care and support that is needed throughout her journey. The immediate needs are an exploratory procedure to take a more detailed look at both eyes, genetic testing to determine if there are any other underlying health issues that haven’t been detected yet, prosthetics and a possible cornea transplant if she is a good candidate.
She has already had a MRI that confirmed her right eye globe is smaller than herleft and has no chance for sight. This will require a prosthetic eye that will need to be replaced every few years as she grows. The good news that we received from the MRI is that her brain is fully developed and looks great!
We have already been so touched by the love that has been shown to us and Georgia over the past 4 weeks. This is certainly a journey we never could have predicted but we know with our faith and support system we will continue to have the strength to give Georgia the best chance to live a life full of laughter, dancing, learning and adventures….and so much more!
A sincere thank you to each of you.
All the love,
Arthur and Holland Pulley
Organizer and beneficiary
Scottie Miller
Organizer
Charlotte, NC
Holland Pulley
Beneficiary
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