Go Fund Me for Kirsten Downs-Mauldin

Kirsten & Zach Mauldin were happily married on November 20, 2021, and knew they wanted to have a beautiful family together. Just over a year later on December 16, 2022, they welcomed their healthy precious daughter Peyton Riley into the world but instead of taking home their sweet baby girl, Kirsten has been fighting for her life.

Many of you have reached out to see how you can help Kirsten, Zach and Peyton so we have set up a GoFundME to offset medical expenses that this situation has already incurred. This young family will be facing expenses for doctor bills, time away from work, care for Peyton, medical supplies and more for weeks and months to come.

Here is her story:

Kirsten delivered Peyton at Texas Women's Hospital in Houston, Texas by c-section after many hours of labor. By December 22nd, Kirsten began having high fever, high blood pressure and intense pain which led doctors to suspect an infection. In the following days, Kirsten faced multiple surgeries and many complications with extremely high fever, dangerously high white blood cell count, tremendous pain, and even required the use of a ventilator at which point she was placed in an induced coma for a short period. Doctors did several surgeries to search for and remove the infection but Kirsten's stats continued to decline. Eventually, doctors made the difficult determination that the best course of action required a total hysterectomy and removal of muscle, fascia and more.

On January 2nd, Kirsten was moved from Texas Women's to UTMB in Galveston to a hospital with greater resources to provide her with more specific care to treat the infection. This ended up possibly saving her life as 2 days later the doctors confirmed that she had necrotizing fasciitis, a form of flesh-eating bacteria. They were now working against the clock with locating, removing and debriding the infection. Each time her doctors would temporarily close her wound so they could return a few 

days later to repeat the process but eventually, they had to leave the wound open because of inflammation and lack of fascia. Through all of this, Kirsten was secluded in ICU without her baby enduring extreme pain, depression and anxiety. Fortunately, after her 5th surgery, a miracle began to happen, the bacteria was almost eradicated, her white blood cell count began to drop and her fever began to regulate. Doctors performed her 6th surgery on January 7th and were able to remove her wound vac and remaining tubes. For the next several days they will focus on caring for her multiple wounds and tracking her levels for any change which would indicate infection. She is improving every day and working towards going home with her baby and husband Zach.

A special surprise for Kirsten happened on January 7th when the ICU allowed Peyton to visit her mommy in the hospital. She had not seen her baby since the week she was born. This visit no doubt gave Kirsten a huge boost to her morale, a reason to keep fighting hard and absolute joy in her heart. Her husband, parents, family and friends have been caring for Peyton while Kirsten fights, but she desperately wants to get home to her family.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Our God Is An Awesome God!