Help Us with Nolan’s Medical Debt, Future & Past

Update 4/3/23:

Nolan is doing wonderfully, and the doctors agree. We have scheduled out his next (and hopefully last) surgery for April 24th. This will be to correct his Hirschsprung’s Disease by removing that part of his colon from his body. Thankfully, after leaving the hospital, Nolan will be in recovery for up to a year at home. After this surgery, Nolan’s body should be like any regular baby!

Thank you again for all your support. We appreciate it, and I know Nolan does too!

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Update: Wow! You are all amazing. Thanks to your support we are going to make our goal to the amount we were originally thinking but thought was way too high. You’ve shown us how supportive the people around us are and we are incredibly grateful to all of you!

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Nolan is the toughest little dude we’ve ever met in our life. He has been through so much in his first 4 months, yet he barely complains, he barely cries, and he loves to give us big smiles to let us know he loves us. Here is a little bit of his story:

Since the pregnancy, we learned of the hurdles that Nolan would need to overcome. Having to go to a specialty OB and being told he could be underweight, told he would have to be a cesarean section delivery, and we were told that there was the possibility that he could have Trisomy-21 (Down Syndrome).

We are asking for help due to the many surgeries and extended stay that Nolan had in the NICU since birth.

The second he was born, he had some problems holding oxygen and had to be taken from us to go straight to the NICU. Thankfully, the problems that came from holding oxygen went away within a day, and we thought we would be able to take him home soon. Within 48hrs of life, we are woken up in Tess’ recovery room by the NICU Doctor at 3 am. They said that he is throwing up green bile and will be transferred to Wolfson’s hospital for a specialty x-ray to help discover what the problem is. As soon as Tess was discharged from the hospital, we made our way to Nolan.

Once at Wolfson’s, we are told that Nolan has an obstruction in his stomach and is not able to pass food past this point. Then just a few hours later, we are told that surgery is ready to take Nolan to discover the problem and fix it on the spot. This will be the first of many surgeries that Nolan has to go through, with one more to come in the near future.

The surgeons discover he has malrotation of his intestines and what is known as LADDs Bands, bands that are blocking the passage of food. After the bands were removed, and within a few days, Nolan comes back to his room and starts to keep food down but seems to have some problems with vomiting and a distended stomach. About a month later we are given the option to give Nolan a G-Tube to help him with his feeds and bring him home with us, which would mean his second surgery. After this surgery, he starts taking food and gaining some weight, and we were told that we should be coming home within a week!

We come back the following day to learn that he had blood in his stool and that his distension of his stomach is much worse than before. There is the idea thrown around that he may have a rare problem called Hirschsprung’s disease, which is the lack of nerves in certain parts of the colon/or intestines. After a few rounds of tests and biopsies, which required him to go under anesthesia for the third time, we are told that he has tested positive for this disease. Our surgeon tells us that we have a once-in-a-career baby for a surgeon, as almost no babies have malrotation and Hirschsprung’s at the same time. The doctors and surgeons let us know that they need to perform a rerouting of his large intestines. This happens with his third surgery to give him a colostomy bag for a few months while his colon gets a break, and so he can gain some weight back.

It has now been a little over a month since he had this surgery. Nolan has been home with us and has been picking up on the bottle extremely well and has had no problems with his digestive system since the ostomy surgery. He takes all his feeds by mouth currently and doesn’t even require his G-Tube. Everything is going well, and he is a healthy and very happy little man. He will still require at least one more surgery before we can pass this tough beginning to Nolan’s life. Nolan's fourth surgery will be to remove the part of his large intestines that is missing nerves to correct his ability to pass stool and gas, and to reverse the rerouting of his intestines into his colostomy.

All of the surgeries and his almost 3 months extended stay in the NICU at Wolfson’s this has left us with numerous hospital debts that we must pay. We have done what we can with the privileges that we are afforded and the massive support of our family, but it is unfortunately too much for us to handle alone.

Nolan is the greatest son we could have ever asked for, and we love him more than anything in our lives. After all the overwhelming odds that have been and continue to be against him, he has been the most well-behaved, quick-learning, and toughest baby we could have ever hoped for. He is so loving and has the power to charm anyone that he meets!

Please contribute whatever you can, as anything you give will help us take care of his medical debt. We thank you so much, and reach out to us if you would like to meet this amazing little boy!

- Tess Guidi, Justin Schoolfield – the proudest parents in the world"