Helping Nickolas!

Nickolas was hospitalized and put on the vent after birth and was diagnosed with AVSD, a rare heart defect that will require surgery at 4-6 months of age. He is only a week old now, and has had issues breathing and eating from the heart defect. He has managed to come off of the vent recently, but still struggles to eat as it's too much work on him to do so... He is getting tube feedings through his nose when he has no energy to eat, and they have managed to stabilize his breathing enough to come off of the vent, but here soon, Nickolas will start to develop labored breathing and more difficulty eating as the blood slowly builds up in his lungs from his heart.. he will require frequent monitoring with cardiologists to help him breathe and to prescribe medications to help him through this long and miserable waiting period until he is old enough to have the surgery, as it is a serious operation and to minimize risks, he needs to weigh enough and be old enough to have it done. His family lives 2 hours away from the hospital he is staying at, and have to drive back and forth, as they have a little girl at home to take care of as well.