Hollis Hafner's Medical Support Fund

Hollis Faye Hafner was born on August 27th, 2022, at 2:53 am. Initially, she appeared healthy; however, a few hours later, medical staff noticed a heart murmur and little Hollis could not maintain proper O2 saturation levels. An ultrasound was ordered, which revealed malformations in Hollis' heart that would require intervention on a level higher than doctors in Montana could provide. By early afternoon, emergency efforts to get Hollis to Denver Children's Hospital were underway and she, Whitney, and Ian were Denver bound via Air Ambulance by 5:30 pm. Hollis stopped breathing twice during the flight and arrived at Denver Children's Hospital just in time for some of the world's finest children's doctors to intervene. Whitney and Ian were asked to leave the room while Hollis was intubated and her large team of doctors came up with a plan to save her life.

Hollis was diagnosed with a critical form of Pulmonary Valve Stenoses, a significant narrowing and thickening of the valve between her heart and pulmonary artery. If left untreated, oxygen-rich blood could not get to Hollis's lungs and she would die. Two potential fixes for this condition are a balloon inserted in her valve to open it up and increase blood flow or open heart surgery to replace the valve. The first, and more conservative procedure, would require repeats of the same intervention on a 3-4 month basis as her heart grows, while the second would require repeated open heart surgeries as her heart grows. Hollis' team of doctors decided it was best to try the more conservative procedure first with a plan to intervene with open heart surgery if it did not work. In the early afternoon of 8/30/22, Hollis underwent the first procedure with a thousand prayer warriors intervening on her behalf. The doctors completed the procedure in record time and began tapering Hollis off of the medications that had been keeping her alive. Time would tell if the procedure worked. During the late morning of 8/31/22, Hollis outperformed everyone's expectations and she was taken off the ventilator. By the late afternoon, she was sucking down a bottle of colostrum. On the morning of 9/1/22, it appeared the procedure had worked and Hollis was placed on minimal oxygen. Her medical team began talking about moving her from the ICU to a step-down unit. All of this far exceeded the best-case scenario her team of doctors presented before her balloon intervention.

On the afternoon of 9/1/22, Hollis' support calvary arrived, including her brother (Davis), sisters (Ellie and Charlie), Noni (Shirl), Papa (Aaron), and YaYa (Tisha). With needed supplies and a vehicle now available, Whitney and Ian took up residence at the Ronald McDonald House near the hospital while their support family resided in a hotel across the road from the Hospital.

Currently, Hollis is working on passing enough tests to be discharged. Once she is, she will be required to stay near the hospital for a few more days before being cleared for travel back to Montana. In addition, her condition will initially require monthly trips to Denver Children's Hospital for check-ups and potential procedures. Hopefully, this will transition to repeated balloon procedures every 3-4 months as her heart grows, with the probability of open heart surgery at age 10-12 years. This will require time away from work for Ian as well as travel expenses, including; gas, hotel stays, food, and miscellaneous medical expenses, for the foreseeable future. Please consider donating to Hollis' medical support fund to help offset these costs.