Bellas Medical Expenses
Donation protected
Meet my sweet grand daughter Bella Maci. At 20 weeks pregnant Kaylie found out that her baby girl had a heart defect called D-Transposition of the Great Arteries; basically her pulmonary artery and her aorta artery are switched which means that once outside of the womb her body would not get any oxygenated blood to her body and organs. Although this is not necessarily a rare condition it is a serious heart condition that needed to be repaired once she was born. Along with this heart condition it was discovered that she had a hole in the bottom chamber of her heart. As you can imagine the costs for such a surgery, even with insurance, is astronomical but not an option.
Bella was born on December 10, 2014 and was immediately taken to the NICU. She struggled to breath on her own when she arrived and was given a breathing tube to help her breath. She was put on medication to keep the bypass in both the top and bottom chamber of her little heart open. But that was not enough, she then went into a 3 hr procedure to place a balloon in the bypass in the top chamber of her heart to keep it open as it was more narrow than they anticipated, so oxygenated blood could flow through to her body. Once the procedure was completed her left lung filled with mucus and was beginning to collapse and the Drs. were unsure what the outcome would be. They performed a Bronchoscope Lavage to remove the mucus from her lung. She was doing much better for about 4 hours and then the right lung began to collapse due to the same issue so they performed another Bronchoscope Lavage on the right lung as well as went back into the left lung to clear that one as well.
Due to these additional complications the surgery to switch the ateries to the right places was postponed. We were optimistic because Bella was beginning to do much better. She was able to be fed via a feeding tube with Kaylie's breast milk, we were able to hold her and the breathing tube was removed. In the last few days it was discovered that the bypass in the top chamber where the balloon was placed is beginning to narrow so they have had to increase the medicine she is receiving to keep the bypass open which has side effects. The one side effect that is concerning is the increased possibility of apnea and if she has episodes of apnea they will put the breathing tube back in - which would be a set back.
All of this is a lot to take on, let alone the worry of paying the medical bills on top of it. The bills have started to come in from the first 5 days of her life they are over $5,000 (those are not even from the hospital itself) and the surgery has not been performed yet.
I would not normally ask for help - nor would Kaylie and Kevin, but I don't want them to have to worry about the finances of all this on top of worrying about their precious baby girl. Even though the amount we are asking for is probably going to be a fraction of the total cost any little bit helps. Thank you in advance for any donation you can give. I will keep everyone updated as we go through her surgery and recovery.
Thanks again!
Cindy McCaulley
Bella was born on December 10, 2014 and was immediately taken to the NICU. She struggled to breath on her own when she arrived and was given a breathing tube to help her breath. She was put on medication to keep the bypass in both the top and bottom chamber of her little heart open. But that was not enough, she then went into a 3 hr procedure to place a balloon in the bypass in the top chamber of her heart to keep it open as it was more narrow than they anticipated, so oxygenated blood could flow through to her body. Once the procedure was completed her left lung filled with mucus and was beginning to collapse and the Drs. were unsure what the outcome would be. They performed a Bronchoscope Lavage to remove the mucus from her lung. She was doing much better for about 4 hours and then the right lung began to collapse due to the same issue so they performed another Bronchoscope Lavage on the right lung as well as went back into the left lung to clear that one as well.
Due to these additional complications the surgery to switch the ateries to the right places was postponed. We were optimistic because Bella was beginning to do much better. She was able to be fed via a feeding tube with Kaylie's breast milk, we were able to hold her and the breathing tube was removed. In the last few days it was discovered that the bypass in the top chamber where the balloon was placed is beginning to narrow so they have had to increase the medicine she is receiving to keep the bypass open which has side effects. The one side effect that is concerning is the increased possibility of apnea and if she has episodes of apnea they will put the breathing tube back in - which would be a set back.
All of this is a lot to take on, let alone the worry of paying the medical bills on top of it. The bills have started to come in from the first 5 days of her life they are over $5,000 (those are not even from the hospital itself) and the surgery has not been performed yet.
I would not normally ask for help - nor would Kaylie and Kevin, but I don't want them to have to worry about the finances of all this on top of worrying about their precious baby girl. Even though the amount we are asking for is probably going to be a fraction of the total cost any little bit helps. Thank you in advance for any donation you can give. I will keep everyone updated as we go through her surgery and recovery.
Thanks again!
Cindy McCaulley
Organizer
Kaylie Dion
Organizer
Henderson, NV
