Willow Hope's Heart Campaign

Willow Hope Pross arrived March 19, 2019 and has been a fighter for the past week! 

Willow has Ebstein's Anomaly, which is a malformation of the tricuspid valve. Plainly, one of her heart valves is malformed and not working correctly.  She has had quite the battle thus far. She is currently on a ventilator, has been in a paralytic state to keep her calm, and has received several blood transfusion in the past 7 days. 

Stephanie and Zach have been staying at the hospital the past week because Willow's health has been worse than the doctor's previously predicted. There have been times where her heart rate has dropped so extremely low that they thought they might lose her. She is slowly making great strides, but still has a LONG road ahead of her.

Due to Willow's heart defect, Stephanie missed excessive amounts of work to attend appointments with the OB, Pediatric Cardiologist, and NICU doctors at Children's Mercy prior to Willow arriving. These appointments have caused Stephanie to use all her paid days off months ago, so the remainder of her time off is being deducted from her paycheck. To date the Pross' have already lost out on nearly $5,000 in missed pay, with many months to go. The hospital balance  will continue to grow exponentially with each week that Willow is in the NICU. 

The Pross family has 5 additional children, who are all involved in extracurricular activities. This means that, on top of medical bills, there will be the added expense of Zach and Stephanie traveling back and forth between downtown Kansas City and Lee's Summit multiple times a day. This doesn't factor in the continued daily expenses of supporting a family of soon to be eight.

The Pross Family has so much support emotionally, but financially is always a huge burden on a family. Any little bit of help is greatly appreciated and goes a long way to help this family to resume a semi-normal life in the upcoming months. 

Continue following Willow's journey on her Caring  Bridge Journal. All the positive thoughts, energy, and prayers are more than needed right now!