Helping Sawyer fight the Heart Transplant
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Many of you already know Sawyer’s story but for those of you who don’t, let me begin. Sawyer was born with a complete AV canal defect along with heart valves that never formed. He was urgently sent to Doernbecher Children's Hospital at 2months old after falling into major heart failure. His stay was 6months, durning that time was one major heart surgery and a long road to recovery. There were moments everyone was very unsure if he would make it, luckily he came out stronger than ever. That heart surgery bought us time that we are forever thankful for! In the last 6months Sawyer has gone through another 3 heart surgeries. The first two were back in August because his previously repaired heart valve was no longer enough, it was time for a mechanical replacement. Unfortunately sometimes after the heart is cut into enough times you damage the heart’s condition system. This means the electrical currents causing the heart to squeeze don’t work. Sawyer came out in complete heart block. The plan was to immediately go back in and place a pacemaker. After a month stay in the hospital Sawyer was able to go home. Unfortunately with all of those recent medical changes Sawyer needs to be on blood thinning injections every 12hrs. With his current level of blood thinner Sawyer is at major risk for severe bleeding and injury. All these changes require Sawyer to receive very specific care. These requirements are not easy on our family financially, especially the follow ups and medical travel. Back around thanksgiving Sawyer had a echocardiogram and it revealed his heart function had plummeted. His heart was weak and not properly squeezing. The Cardiologists at Doernbecher were very concerned and completely shocked that his body was rejecting the pacemaker. That is a very rare occurrence. Lucky, another neighboring Cardiac team was willing to help with Sawyers case. Hello Stanford University! A few amazing doctors in the heart failure/heart transplant unit reviewed Sawyers full case and decided to go ahead with a specialized pacemaker. Unfortunately at the same time we got a new plan, our family was also met with a possible side route if this was also unsuccessful. A Heart Transplant. We obviously chose to replace the pacemaker in hopes to solve our problem. That surgery was done this January, immediately following the surgery we saw a slight improvement. Not enough for anyone to say if this will be enough for Sawyer. As of today we are currently awaiting an urgent referral approval to go down to get sawyer checked out by the Stanfords heart failure/heart transplant unit. We don’t know what’s to come or have any idea what this will look like for our family. Sawyer will be 4 on 2/5/23, he has gone through 4 heart surgeries and so much medically. He is an amazing kid and our family keeps pushing forward. Unfortunately through all this the last 6months we have dwindled our savings, about expended our resources, and have no more paid time off. This is incredibly stressful because for one it’s your child’s life in the unknown and two, having to act quickly on such short notice leaves no plan financially. Just like any other family when we travel we still have bills and rent at home, yet not working to pay them. Trying to financially live in two places at once is a huge struggle. Im now creating this GoFundMe for a few reasons, to be able to share Sawyer’s strong fight and journey already. To keep all those curious and those who have been praying for our family updated. Finally, so many kind families have been so helpful to us and wanted to continue to find ways to give in other areas. This is just one other very helpful way! I will continue updates on here since Sawyers medical needs and health situation has changed so rapidly over the last 6months. I also want to thank every last person for every ounce of help and prayer they have given to us. It means the world to my family to know we have so many people out there. ❤️
Organizer
Elexis Casey
Organizer
Medford, OR