Flight for Life, and a Fight For Life- Baby Jones
Donation protected
No birth story is the same, but we didn’t have the slightest thought it could be anything like ours. As his parents, our story is not easy to tell but it is in fact, what has been going on since the birth of our beautiful son.
We welcomed our son, Jones Michael Geller to the world by emergency C- Section on March 25th, 2023 at 3:38am, weighing in at 8lbs 2oz. The moment that beautiful boy was born, our lives changed forever. At first, we only got to see him through the screen, but then the Doc let Josey kiss her son through the screen for the very first time. What we did not know was what was going on behind the scenes, while Josey was in the recovery room from surgery. Jones was born as a “wet noodle” the doctor said, and was resuscitated a few times upon birth. We only got to see him one more time before we went to our room in the hospital. We didn’t get to kiss him but we did get to hold his hand for a second. We got into our room around 9am that same morning and a different doctor came. He introduced himself and started telling us the condition of our son. He explained that he had multiple organs failing and he was not sure how our baby will come out of this. He said they will continue to work on him and keep us posted. No more than 45 minutes later, that same doctor came back in, only this time his demeanor had changed from concerned to hectic and grim. He told us to go to our sons bedside right away, that he is not going to make it. He went on to say if we have family in the area to call them and have them rush here. By 10am we got to Jones’ room where we saw a sea of doctors and nurses working on Jones nonstop. We were able to get to his bedside, which was not easy considering Josey was in a wheelchair from her C section, and without a second thought Josey stood up to hold Jones’ hand and started comforting her son. He opened his eyes and they looked at each other for the first time. It is a moment neither of us will ever forget. The nurses and doctors started to chatter about how Jones’ vitals were starting to slightly improve. The longer we stood next to him, the better he got. The doctors worked effortlessly to keep him stable enough to transport him to the Denver Childrens Hospital in Aurora. Next thing we knew, the life flight crew was standing at the entrance of Jones’ room with what looked like a portable baby incubator. Jones fought for an hour to maintain his stability enough to be transitioned to the portable incubator, and for another hour once inside it before it was safe to fly. They do not have room for parents, so we had to watch our newborn son lift off in the helicopter, crying, praying, and holding up the ‘I love you’ hand sign as we watched him leave.
The doctors cannot find the what or the why our son is so sick. Jones has stumped teams of the smartest doctors all across the country. They want to find a reason this happened and have assured us repeatedly that it was nothing we did or didn’t do. Josey took being pregnant seriously, reading all the right books and avoiding the wrong things. I cooked whatever she read about and supported and respected all her research and efforts. It makes this mystery even more frustrating, but he is alive today and has a chance to beat this because we took the birth classes and knew something was wrong, and arrived at Poudre Valley Hospital in time. Jones has made promising progress, and has overcome many of these issues, but nonetheless had to fight to survive many times. He was immediately cooled down to a temp of 92 degrees Fahrenheit to preserve his condition, put on an ECMO machine to save his life- it works for his heart, a ventilator with nitric oxide gas, an oscillator and dialysis. The room was crammed full of machines . He is still in critical condition, but has come off the ECMO and dialysis machines!
We never went home after he was born. We arrived in Aurora straight from leaving the hospital. This has become challenging financially. We are so grateful for your thoughts and prayers, and your donations are keeping us fed and less stressed. Thank you for being part of our lives. We are so proud to be Jones’ mom and dad.
Sincerely, Mike and Josey Geller
We welcomed our son, Jones Michael Geller to the world by emergency C- Section on March 25th, 2023 at 3:38am, weighing in at 8lbs 2oz. The moment that beautiful boy was born, our lives changed forever. At first, we only got to see him through the screen, but then the Doc let Josey kiss her son through the screen for the very first time. What we did not know was what was going on behind the scenes, while Josey was in the recovery room from surgery. Jones was born as a “wet noodle” the doctor said, and was resuscitated a few times upon birth. We only got to see him one more time before we went to our room in the hospital. We didn’t get to kiss him but we did get to hold his hand for a second. We got into our room around 9am that same morning and a different doctor came. He introduced himself and started telling us the condition of our son. He explained that he had multiple organs failing and he was not sure how our baby will come out of this. He said they will continue to work on him and keep us posted. No more than 45 minutes later, that same doctor came back in, only this time his demeanor had changed from concerned to hectic and grim. He told us to go to our sons bedside right away, that he is not going to make it. He went on to say if we have family in the area to call them and have them rush here. By 10am we got to Jones’ room where we saw a sea of doctors and nurses working on Jones nonstop. We were able to get to his bedside, which was not easy considering Josey was in a wheelchair from her C section, and without a second thought Josey stood up to hold Jones’ hand and started comforting her son. He opened his eyes and they looked at each other for the first time. It is a moment neither of us will ever forget. The nurses and doctors started to chatter about how Jones’ vitals were starting to slightly improve. The longer we stood next to him, the better he got. The doctors worked effortlessly to keep him stable enough to transport him to the Denver Childrens Hospital in Aurora. Next thing we knew, the life flight crew was standing at the entrance of Jones’ room with what looked like a portable baby incubator. Jones fought for an hour to maintain his stability enough to be transitioned to the portable incubator, and for another hour once inside it before it was safe to fly. They do not have room for parents, so we had to watch our newborn son lift off in the helicopter, crying, praying, and holding up the ‘I love you’ hand sign as we watched him leave.
The doctors cannot find the what or the why our son is so sick. Jones has stumped teams of the smartest doctors all across the country. They want to find a reason this happened and have assured us repeatedly that it was nothing we did or didn’t do. Josey took being pregnant seriously, reading all the right books and avoiding the wrong things. I cooked whatever she read about and supported and respected all her research and efforts. It makes this mystery even more frustrating, but he is alive today and has a chance to beat this because we took the birth classes and knew something was wrong, and arrived at Poudre Valley Hospital in time. Jones has made promising progress, and has overcome many of these issues, but nonetheless had to fight to survive many times. He was immediately cooled down to a temp of 92 degrees Fahrenheit to preserve his condition, put on an ECMO machine to save his life- it works for his heart, a ventilator with nitric oxide gas, an oscillator and dialysis. The room was crammed full of machines . He is still in critical condition, but has come off the ECMO and dialysis machines!
We never went home after he was born. We arrived in Aurora straight from leaving the hospital. This has become challenging financially. We are so grateful for your thoughts and prayers, and your donations are keeping us fed and less stressed. Thank you for being part of our lives. We are so proud to be Jones’ mom and dad.
Sincerely, Mike and Josey Geller
Organizer
Josey Geller
Organizer
Fort Collins, CO