39.3 Miles for Emma - will you help?


As you might recall, on Christmas day my brother Nathan and his wife Sharlynn had a sweet baby girl, Emma Rae.  She was born 5 weeks early.  That morning came with contractions and all Christmas gift opening was postponed as everyone gathered in the hospital bright and early.


What we didn't know was that Emma gave us the greatest gift.  So much of Christmas is about the things; the packages, the stuff that has a shelf to belong on.  But Emma taught us that the important things are the people in our lives.


After being life-flighted twice and ended up in Primary Children's Medical Center in SLC, things didn't look good.

Her lungs, stomach, and brain were bleeding.  They didn't know what was wrong.  They gave her plasma to try and stop the bleeding, the side effect was that fluid was building up in her body.  It appeared her kidneys and liver might not be working.  Then they found blood clots leading to the liver, but were hopeful that the plasma could clot the brain bleeding and un-clot the liver blockage.  In the meantime, she continue to swell and there were really no answers to why.  And she continued to get worse.  After searching far and wide, a nurse tipped off to something similar and doctors started going down the list of possibles.  Nathan talked to so many universities, hospitals, other health professionals, and searched online for answers during the whole process.  Countless hours.  The ultimate verdict was neonatal hemochromatosis (liver failure).  For infants it's rare and has a high mortality rate. 


For any future children, there's a greater than 80% chance this would happen again.  There are a couple studies happening that have been successful.  


Emma was with us for 22 days.  Before she went, she was surrounded by parents, brother, grandparents, aunt, and uncle.  They circled around her little bed to say goodbye.  I wasn't able to meet her, but my sister said she kissed her for me.  Then my sister sang and they said goodnight.


My Aunt is running 2 half marathons, a 10-miler, and a 5K in Emma's honor.  With the 39.3 miles that the running adds up to, she's also raising money to help with medical expenses.  

As she says, "There are many hurdles that my family must overcome in the wake of losing little Emma. Most are of the heart and will require time, love, and healing. However, there is one area where even complete strangers can help; in her short time on earth, Emma racked up some pretty impressive medical expenses.

This website made me enter a goal, but really, I have no specific goal other than to do something for my family to let them know that they are supported during a hard, hard time. If you have some extra dough this month, please do consider donating.

Much love and thanks for reading,
Kalina"

If you find yourself interested or able to donate, go to this website where you can easily enter your donation...note that there are only 11 days left.  There is a listed $2000 goal to raise, but that doesn't mean we can't surpass it!  Thank you so much for your generosity and kindness.

Happy love day!

1 comment:

  1. Oh noooo!!! Oh, those sweet parents. That sweet baby. Ahhh, my heart goes out to them! We'll check out the site for sure. Please pass along a hug from me. I'm so sorry for their loss!

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear your feedback.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...