Financial assistance for the family of Rika & James Picotte

Organized by the Aunties of James William Lee Picotte

On February 24, 2024, in Aberdeen, SD, our surprise nephew James William Lee Picotte arrived by emergency cesarean section to Dale and Rika Picotte. He is named after his grandpas James Dean Picotte and James Lee Dozier and his great grandfather William Picotte Sr. Their pregnancy was a private affair with the hope to present Baby James to their family upon his arrival. However, Rika went into preterm labor at 29 weeks. From Aberdeen, James was flown to Sanford Children's Hospital Sioux Falls in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Rika was released from the hospital on February 25 and the family left immediately for Sioux Falls to be with James. Upon arrival at Sanford Children’s Hospital, Rika collapsed and was hospitalized for several weeks for sepsis, among other things. The doctors at Sanford have expressed time and time again how lucky we are to have them both still with us, as both James and Rika coded on two separate occasions.

Rika was sick throughout much of her pregnancy and was fighting three different infections, all of which Baby James was fighting as well. After his birth he went into cardiac arrest and the doctors performed life saving measures for 10 minutes before he came back them. James was then intubated and flown all alone to Sioux Falls. He has been in the NICU since then. He has struggled and won a number of different battles in his 55 days on this earth. The specific worries now are focused on his breathing and what the doctors believe is an allergy or sensitivity to milk protein so he has been put on a special formula fortifier that is added to his breast milk to help him gain weight.

Rika has just started walking on her own unassisted and is staying full time in Sioux Falls to be with James. Dale, Cian, Leighton and Jesse travel back and forth on the weekends from Aberdeen. They live 3 hours away from Sioux Falls, a six hour round trip. Currently, Dale is the sole provider of their family and is supporting two households. Baby James is still in the NICU, with no release date in sight. Their medical and travelling costs have become more than they are able to sustain. Throughout this time, his big brothers have not been able to hold him or see him in person and he has only been held by his mom and dad.

We have created this GoFundMe to help this wonderful family through this incredibly difficult time and to try to alleviate some of their worry.

Please keep our nephew James, sister Rika and her family in your prayers.

Thank You!

Keena Dozier Figueroa

Alyce J Allen

Holly A Annis