Hello, my name is Stefania Figueroa. My husband Mitchell and I are trying to raise some money to bring our baby boy Matteo Figueroa home from the NICU. A little back story of Matteo, My husband and I wanted to do a 4D ultra sound of Matteo so we can get a close look of what our baby was going to look like. We were excited because we thought he woukd look like his older brothers, Landon and Max. While getting the 4D ultrasound done, the technician looked at us and told us that there was something wrong. She was seeing a dark matter in his body which she thought was fluid. She told us to go to our doctor immediately and so we did. We scheduled an appointment and there they saw what the 4D ultrasound technician was correct in what she saw. They decided to schedule me for a follow up appointment and the fluid had gotten worse! On December 4th, I had another follow up appointment. I decided to go alone because my husband stayed at home taking care of Landon and Max. Never did I think to hear the next news from my doctor. They would need to perform an emergency c-section because our baby boy’s heartbeat was almost nonexistent. Matteo was drowning from all the fluid in his little body. I called my husband and told him the horrible news. He left our boys with my mom and came to the hospital to be with me. When he arrived at the hospital, One of the doctors had prepared my husband for the worst. Baby Matteo only had a 50/50 chance of surviving once he was out of the womb. Wiping his tears from the news, he was brought into the room where i was already prepped for the emergency surgery. They commenced the surgery to take Matteo out. My husband never told me this because he didn't want to worry me anymore, but when he saw Matteo in the doctors hands, he thought Matteo had passed. He was swollen and lifeless. All he could tell me was that he looked exactly like his brother Max. Unsure of Matteo's actual circumstance, he held it together for me. We didn't get to see Matteo until two days later.

Once we were taken into his room in the NICU, we saw that our baby had tubes all over his body! He had chest tubes to drain fluid from both of his lungs, he had multiple iv's, and was swollen from head to toe, he was on a ventilator because he couldn’t breathe on his own. It took the doctors about a month to figure out what was going on with him. They found that he had Hydrops which is a rare disease in babies. Knowing now what they were dealing with, they kept working just the way that they had been doing since Matteo was delivered by the emergency c-section. Doctors were slowly decreasing the ventilator setting. On January 31 they removed the tube from his mouth and was put on oxygen. Matteo still kept fighting. Doctors saw that he was doing great so they slowly started to wean off the oxygen to the point where he didn’t need it anymore.

February 1, Matteo had to learn how to bottle feed, since he was intubated he thought that the bottle was something negative that was going to hurt him. But he kept trying either way. There were times where he would take 31 ML of formula but he wouldn’t take the entire bottle. So eventually doctors saw that he was going to take months for him to actually bottle feed. On February 27 he had a procedure where he got a Gastrostomy Tube, which is a feeding tube in his stomach. We never lost hope! We prayed like we had never prayed before and our family, friend's and nurses also prayed for us and with us. CHOC children's hospital is full of Nurses/angels that have taken care of him like no one has ever taken care of a baby that wasn't theirs. We are so grateful and appreciative of everything that the CHOC staff has done for Matteo. Now that Matteo is doing a lot better and is finally ready to come home, our insurance, Blue Cross, does not want to cover his medication. I was told that they won't be covering it either because his medication is a Chemo medicine that his doctor prescribed to him from studies that have been done on other babies that had hydrops. Since Matteo does not have cancer, but is taking a cancer medication, they said they will not be covering it. We are frustrated, heartbroken and defeated. Our baby can't come home until his medication is approved by our insurance. To top it off, my husband went on Paternity leave effective December 4th when all of this happened and now the insurance does not want to cover any medical bills between then and and February 1st which is when he went back to work. The total cost of the accumulated bills is 3 million dollars!!! We are fighting this too. No one should ever have to go through this. I know that God will see this through just like he has been. We've never lost hope and how could we after all of the fighting that our baby has done, to be with his brothers, mommy and dad. We ask if there is anything you can help with, please open your hearts and help us bring our baby Matteo home. He stays at the hospital with the company of amazing nurses, but he needs the love and comfort of his family. Our family appreciates you even just reading Matteo's story. Thank you everyone. God bless you all.