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Help start Dancing4Dylan to assist NICU families

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Story on Today.com Eonline 

I want to start a foundation to help families with babies in the NICU! Will you join me? Here is my story: On 1/12/20 my wife, who is an ER nurse and pregnant, called me at work at the fire department telling me she is bleeding, having pain and heading to the hospital. I immediately left work and when I arrived at the hospital my wife had a partial placenta abruption. Our baby was born premature at 30 weeks. Mom is healthy and baby Dylan is looking to be headed home soon, we hope! We have been in the NICU for over 44 days now and it’s been some of the hardest times in our lives. In the beginning days we were staying at the Ronald McDonald House and while doing laundry late one night I came across a dance on the app “TikTok” and decided to put it towards my son getting out of the nicu. I called it “Dancing till my son leaves the NICU” and added each day along with an update to how Dylan was Doing. When I woke up that next morning I had over 400k views and messages started pouring in saying how I’m making them smile at a time smiles are few and far between. I had a family tell me their son was born on the same day ours was but unfortunately passed but said I made her smile and for me to keep on dancing. Right then and there is when this took a whole new direction. I no longer dance for my son, I dance for every child in the NICU! If I can make one person smile, then I feel it’s worth it. When reading these messages the problems I’ve been hearing are people not able to take off work, they live 4 + hours away from the hospital and have been commuting and they have lost their job because they have been away for so long. I’ve also come to realize Winnie Palmer Hospital in Orlando is one of the few hospitals in the nation who have beds for families to stay in the same room with their child. I’ve reached over 12 million people in the last 28 days and have brought awareness to the NICU life to people who have had no idea what it’s like or how hard it is on a family. So I’m here asking for money to help start/expand this organization to help families with NICU children and to help the research to further progress the way we treat and care for these children. We are in talks with an organization that has been running for 15 years in Australia. We are working out the logistics to expand to Florida and this money will go to funding the start up. More details will be given as progress is made. Miracle Babies focuses on: programs for families - 24 family phone line, in hospital support, discharge programs till babies are 6yo and ready for school, stacks of physical resources. In addition, we work within the health system to change the experience for families and advance health so that ranges from research, to hospital design, staff inservices, speaking at medical conferences etc. This is taken striaght from their website, •Support, education and resources for families of premature and sick newborns from conception to birth and the years beyond. Working in partnership with healthcare providers and professional organisations in education, training, funding, research and resources. Advocate to positively influence the long term outcome for families. Create meaningful communities that empower families and children to reach their full potential Drive innovation and quality to facilitate improved care and healthier outcomes ———————————————————— It’s important for me to get out that this money will not be used for my family. It will be used to establish this organization. So please Help support the families that need it the most!

Organizer

Chris Askew
Organizer
Boden, FL

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