Our little superhero: Judice Herrin
Donation protected
This little guy was born October 9th, 2019. He is 4 months old. Today, he just underwent his 3rd open heart surgery for his CHD (congenital heart disease). He has also had a thoracotomy and a pyloris repair done. In his 4 months of life he has undergone, overcame and survived 5 surgeries, 4 of which have been on his heart.
When Judice was born we had no idea he was going to be sick. Momma, Alyssa, had a perfect pregnancy and a perfect anatomy scan. 16 hours after he was born, a very astute nurse heard him grunting and thought it warranted further investigation. To this day we are so grateful to her for recognizing that something was wrong. He was sent to OU Children's hospital for evaluation and treatment.
When we were able to see him finally, we were told that he wouldn't survive without a heart transplant. They adjusted some meds though and in a few days his heart function improved enough that the doctor felt we could try surgery. He had his first open heart surgery on October 25th, 2019. We were in the ICU for a total of 7 weeks during that first stay. We got discharged, the first time, the day before Thanksgiving! It was so amazing to finally have him home! We thought it would be a long while before we would have to come back for another surgery! However, that was not the case. Judice developed pyloric stenosis, he was projectile vomiting and losing weight which landed us back in the hospital exactly 14 days after discharge, for surgery #2 on December 17th.
We were told surgery went well and that he should make a full recovery, but when they tried to extubate him and get him off the vent, Judice quit breathing and they had to pt him back on the vent. But it was too much for his little system to take and his heat stopped beating. They did CPR on our little warrior for a total of 30 minutes, they shocked his heart multiple times in an effort to get it to beat again. After that the physicians decided to place him on ECMO for a day or two. He was only on ECMO for 12 hours though because it caused him to have 2 hemorrhagic strokes or brain bleeds. At this point, we were begging everyone to pray for him! This little guy had been through so much, and now this! He was definitely earning his nickname as our little superhero! We spent his first Christmas in the hospital...3 days later, December 28th, on a Sunday, Judice had emergency open heart surgery #2. New Year's came and went and on January 17th we were soon to be heading home again! But the results of his latest echo showed a coarction of the aorta and on the day we were originally supposed to be going home they scheduled Judice for his thoracotomy AKA heart surgery #3 on January 21st. Everyone was here praying for him and loving on him before surgery when he went into respiratory distress and surgery was postponed for a week due to a yeast infection in his blood and in his picc line. On January 28th, Judice had his 3rd heart surgery. After some ups and downs, we finally got discharged home on Feb. 6th!!! Thinking this was a miracle and praising God we made it home again!
Judice was home for 2 weeks...he went to his cardiology appointment, where he had another echo done and they found the transverse arch hypoplasia on Wednesday Feb 19th, which led to him being admitted Friday and this surgery today... open heart surgery #3.
I have told you Judice's story from day 1, now let me tell you mom and dad's... Loss of employment due to hospital stays, car breaking down several times, the hospital provides 1 parent tray for each meal additional trays cost $7.50 each, gas money needed for driving to and from the hospital, the emotional and psychological stress of being 20 and having a very sick baby that has almost died more times than any of us are comfortable admitting. These out of pocket costs for everything have totaled well over $5000. We have been in the hospital for a total of almost 15 weeks. If this stay is anything like the last few, it will be expensive and very unpredictable. Anything will help. Thank you!
When Judice was born we had no idea he was going to be sick. Momma, Alyssa, had a perfect pregnancy and a perfect anatomy scan. 16 hours after he was born, a very astute nurse heard him grunting and thought it warranted further investigation. To this day we are so grateful to her for recognizing that something was wrong. He was sent to OU Children's hospital for evaluation and treatment.
When we were able to see him finally, we were told that he wouldn't survive without a heart transplant. They adjusted some meds though and in a few days his heart function improved enough that the doctor felt we could try surgery. He had his first open heart surgery on October 25th, 2019. We were in the ICU for a total of 7 weeks during that first stay. We got discharged, the first time, the day before Thanksgiving! It was so amazing to finally have him home! We thought it would be a long while before we would have to come back for another surgery! However, that was not the case. Judice developed pyloric stenosis, he was projectile vomiting and losing weight which landed us back in the hospital exactly 14 days after discharge, for surgery #2 on December 17th.
We were told surgery went well and that he should make a full recovery, but when they tried to extubate him and get him off the vent, Judice quit breathing and they had to pt him back on the vent. But it was too much for his little system to take and his heat stopped beating. They did CPR on our little warrior for a total of 30 minutes, they shocked his heart multiple times in an effort to get it to beat again. After that the physicians decided to place him on ECMO for a day or two. He was only on ECMO for 12 hours though because it caused him to have 2 hemorrhagic strokes or brain bleeds. At this point, we were begging everyone to pray for him! This little guy had been through so much, and now this! He was definitely earning his nickname as our little superhero! We spent his first Christmas in the hospital...3 days later, December 28th, on a Sunday, Judice had emergency open heart surgery #2. New Year's came and went and on January 17th we were soon to be heading home again! But the results of his latest echo showed a coarction of the aorta and on the day we were originally supposed to be going home they scheduled Judice for his thoracotomy AKA heart surgery #3 on January 21st. Everyone was here praying for him and loving on him before surgery when he went into respiratory distress and surgery was postponed for a week due to a yeast infection in his blood and in his picc line. On January 28th, Judice had his 3rd heart surgery. After some ups and downs, we finally got discharged home on Feb. 6th!!! Thinking this was a miracle and praising God we made it home again!
Judice was home for 2 weeks...he went to his cardiology appointment, where he had another echo done and they found the transverse arch hypoplasia on Wednesday Feb 19th, which led to him being admitted Friday and this surgery today... open heart surgery #3.
I have told you Judice's story from day 1, now let me tell you mom and dad's... Loss of employment due to hospital stays, car breaking down several times, the hospital provides 1 parent tray for each meal additional trays cost $7.50 each, gas money needed for driving to and from the hospital, the emotional and psychological stress of being 20 and having a very sick baby that has almost died more times than any of us are comfortable admitting. These out of pocket costs for everything have totaled well over $5000. We have been in the hospital for a total of almost 15 weeks. If this stay is anything like the last few, it will be expensive and very unpredictable. Anything will help. Thank you!
Organizer
Kellie Whitefield
Organizer
Moore, OK