11 Month Old Jevon’s Liver Battle
Donation protected
A few weeks ago on Wednesday Jan 24, 2018 we brought our baby boy (Jevon) to the hospital due to vomiting and a high fever. The doctor that night ran some tests and concluded Jevon had an ear infection and sent us home with a prescription for some antibiotics. For the next couple days Jevon continued to show signs that something still was just not quite right. So on Friday evening my wife (Tara) brought Jevon back up to the hospital while I stayed home with our other 2 children (Jaxon 5y/o & Taliyah 3y/o). Later that night, after the doctors had run some more tests on Jevon, my wife came home to pack some things because the doctors had now diagnosed him with RSV (Bronchiolitis) and were transporting him to the Chatham Hospital to be admitted for observation (we live in the small town of Wallaceburg where the hospital here is very limited to staff, equipment and space). 
Unfortunately, I had to stay home with our other 2 children that night, but my wife went and stayed with Jevon in the Chatham Hospital. On Saturday, after dropping our other 2 off with my sister-in-law, I went up to the Hospital to spend the night with Jevon and my wife. We began to notice that evening that Jevon's belly was looking a little bit bloated, but when we asked the nurses about it, they assured us it was only gas from the oxygen he was receiving. The next day (Sunday) after leaving for a brief moment to go home for a quick shower and change of clothes, my wife and I returned to the hospital where we immediately noticed that Jevon's belly had gotten extremely bloated and upwards of his chest as well as if his whole body was swelling.
I rushed to get a nurse and again she felt his tummy and assured us it was just gas, but she would let the doctor know anyways. When the doctor came and took a look at Jevon, he got curious and ordered an immediate ultrasound just to make sure everything was okay inside our poor little baby's body. After reviewing the ultrasound, the doctor had determined that Jevon's liver was enlarged and that there was fluid in his stomach. Unsure of what to do other than just monitor him for the time being, the doctor called up to the London's Children's Hospital to see if they would consider transporting him up there for further investigation (again the Chatham hospital is not equipped and specialized with this type of situation). Unfortunately, the London Hospital didn't have any available beds for Jevon at that time so they said to just continue to monitor him until they had something available and they would transfer him up there as soon as possible. About a half hour later, when we were about to give Jevon his oxygen mask for his RSV, my wife sat him up and he started vomiting massive amounts of dark clotted blood. The doctor immediately figured this was the fluid in his stomach and that somewhere in his stomach he was bleeding internally. The doctor and nurses rushed to get him hooked up to frozen plasma and vitamin K to reduce the bleeding and due to the amount of blood he was losing they also ordered a blood transfusion.
In the meantime, the doctor called the London hospital to update them on his condition. They immediately arranged a transport and had him transferred to London. After an extremely long, stressful and terrifying night and after rushing up to London, it was about 4:30am Monday morning they had finally stabilized Jevon and had him hooked up to a central line for blood work.
The doctor came out and told us they had stopped the internal bleeding and that they would need to run a series of tests to figure out what caused the bleeding and why his liver is enlarged. The doctor explained that it could be a number of things from just a seious infection on his liver to a mass (Liver Cancer), but at that point they were certain it was not liver failure because he was showing no signs of Jaundice. Afterwards we were able to see our little man for a brief while before heading out and checking into a Hotel for the night, but before we left they wanted to do another blood transfusion because of the massive amounts of blood he had lost that night.
On top of everything that we've been going through with Jevon over the past few weeks, we've had to bring our other 2 children up to London with us and about a week ago I also had to bring my daughter (Taliyah 3y/o) into Emerge in London because she was fevered and coughing to the point she would throw up. So she was diagnosed that night with Pneumonia and put on a 10 day prescription of Amoxicillin, the only problem with this is that since she is sick, we cannot stay in the Ronald McDonald House where meals are provided. So for the past few weeks, we have had to stay up in London at Hotels provided at a low cost through the Ronald McDonald House, however we have had to pay out of pocket for things like food, gas, etc. and we're currently running a bit short of cash.
At this point Jevon is stable, however over the past 4 or 5 days he has started to show signs of Jaundice, which (as the nurse explained) means that his liver is not functioning properly and that yes these are early signs that his liver is starting to fail him. His skin and eyes are starting to turn yellow and they have still been unsuccessful at figuring out what is wrong with his liver. So far they have only been able to investigate through medical imagery (Ultrasound, X-Ray & Catscan) where they were able to see an unusual growth of fat on his liver.
So now they want to do a Liver Biopsy, but the only problem with the Biopsy is that at the moment his blood is really low and not clotting properly so if they were to do the Biopsy now, he could potentially bleed out. So needless to say this whole ordeal has been a complete nightmare and we are still no closer to having any answers. The doctors are at the point where if they cannot figure this mystery out in the next little bit, they are talking about transferring us up to Toronto's Sick Kid's Hospital for even further investigation. The past few weeks have been extremely stressful, difficult and expensive. I have not been able to work for the past few weeks with having to be in London and like I said, we are running pretty low on funds at the moment. So we are asking Family & Friends or anybody for that matter for any donations possible. We understand that not everyone is able to help financially, but we are gladly accepting prayers as well!
We will keep everybody updated the best we can and in the meantime, we would like to Thank You all for your donations in advance and all of your prayers and support through these hard times.
Thank You and God Bless,
Rob, Tara, Jaxon, Taliyah & Jevon Marchand
Unfortunately, I had to stay home with our other 2 children that night, but my wife went and stayed with Jevon in the Chatham Hospital. On Saturday, after dropping our other 2 off with my sister-in-law, I went up to the Hospital to spend the night with Jevon and my wife. We began to notice that evening that Jevon's belly was looking a little bit bloated, but when we asked the nurses about it, they assured us it was only gas from the oxygen he was receiving. The next day (Sunday) after leaving for a brief moment to go home for a quick shower and change of clothes, my wife and I returned to the hospital where we immediately noticed that Jevon's belly had gotten extremely bloated and upwards of his chest as well as if his whole body was swelling.
I rushed to get a nurse and again she felt his tummy and assured us it was just gas, but she would let the doctor know anyways. When the doctor came and took a look at Jevon, he got curious and ordered an immediate ultrasound just to make sure everything was okay inside our poor little baby's body. After reviewing the ultrasound, the doctor had determined that Jevon's liver was enlarged and that there was fluid in his stomach. Unsure of what to do other than just monitor him for the time being, the doctor called up to the London's Children's Hospital to see if they would consider transporting him up there for further investigation (again the Chatham hospital is not equipped and specialized with this type of situation). Unfortunately, the London Hospital didn't have any available beds for Jevon at that time so they said to just continue to monitor him until they had something available and they would transfer him up there as soon as possible. About a half hour later, when we were about to give Jevon his oxygen mask for his RSV, my wife sat him up and he started vomiting massive amounts of dark clotted blood. The doctor immediately figured this was the fluid in his stomach and that somewhere in his stomach he was bleeding internally. The doctor and nurses rushed to get him hooked up to frozen plasma and vitamin K to reduce the bleeding and due to the amount of blood he was losing they also ordered a blood transfusion.
In the meantime, the doctor called the London hospital to update them on his condition. They immediately arranged a transport and had him transferred to London. After an extremely long, stressful and terrifying night and after rushing up to London, it was about 4:30am Monday morning they had finally stabilized Jevon and had him hooked up to a central line for blood work.
The doctor came out and told us they had stopped the internal bleeding and that they would need to run a series of tests to figure out what caused the bleeding and why his liver is enlarged. The doctor explained that it could be a number of things from just a seious infection on his liver to a mass (Liver Cancer), but at that point they were certain it was not liver failure because he was showing no signs of Jaundice. Afterwards we were able to see our little man for a brief while before heading out and checking into a Hotel for the night, but before we left they wanted to do another blood transfusion because of the massive amounts of blood he had lost that night.
On top of everything that we've been going through with Jevon over the past few weeks, we've had to bring our other 2 children up to London with us and about a week ago I also had to bring my daughter (Taliyah 3y/o) into Emerge in London because she was fevered and coughing to the point she would throw up. So she was diagnosed that night with Pneumonia and put on a 10 day prescription of Amoxicillin, the only problem with this is that since she is sick, we cannot stay in the Ronald McDonald House where meals are provided. So for the past few weeks, we have had to stay up in London at Hotels provided at a low cost through the Ronald McDonald House, however we have had to pay out of pocket for things like food, gas, etc. and we're currently running a bit short of cash.
At this point Jevon is stable, however over the past 4 or 5 days he has started to show signs of Jaundice, which (as the nurse explained) means that his liver is not functioning properly and that yes these are early signs that his liver is starting to fail him. His skin and eyes are starting to turn yellow and they have still been unsuccessful at figuring out what is wrong with his liver. So far they have only been able to investigate through medical imagery (Ultrasound, X-Ray & Catscan) where they were able to see an unusual growth of fat on his liver.
So now they want to do a Liver Biopsy, but the only problem with the Biopsy is that at the moment his blood is really low and not clotting properly so if they were to do the Biopsy now, he could potentially bleed out. So needless to say this whole ordeal has been a complete nightmare and we are still no closer to having any answers. The doctors are at the point where if they cannot figure this mystery out in the next little bit, they are talking about transferring us up to Toronto's Sick Kid's Hospital for even further investigation. The past few weeks have been extremely stressful, difficult and expensive. I have not been able to work for the past few weeks with having to be in London and like I said, we are running pretty low on funds at the moment. So we are asking Family & Friends or anybody for that matter for any donations possible. We understand that not everyone is able to help financially, but we are gladly accepting prayers as well!
We will keep everybody updated the best we can and in the meantime, we would like to Thank You all for your donations in advance and all of your prayers and support through these hard times.
Thank You and God Bless,
Rob, Tara, Jaxon, Taliyah & Jevon Marchand
Organizer
Rob Marchand
Organizer
Wallaceburg, ON