Stand with Tate's Family Through Their Loss

Hello,

We are Nancy and Darryl, and this is our grandson Tate Spidle. Our little Tater as I call him was born January 13th, 2024. His parents are Katelyn and Garret Spidle. He has two older wonderful siblings, Liam who is 8 and Kinsley is 2.

Tate was born into our world with a rare condition known as Dandy Walker syndrome. A condition that affected Tate in so many ways. Tate spent the next several weeks in the Harrisburg NICU being monitored and tested to determine the severity of this rare condition. It was however determined they needed to send him to the Children's hospital in Pittsburgh to better care for him.

Tate and his mommy spent the next 100 days there having many tests done. EEG, vision, EKG, the list goes on. They discovered Tate was having seizures early on, which then required medication trials to determine which would work best at helping to control his seizures. Tate was still unable to take to a bottle, this required he receive a gastro feeding tube in order to come home. The great hospital staff trained both Katelyn and Garret on how to care for Tate when he came home. Administer medicine, feeding thru the G-tube, use of oxygen system, use of a suction machine for his secretions and how to properly bath him.

On April 17th Tate was given the green light to come home with his parents and meet his siblings and the rest of his family. Tate was well cared for by his parents, they had an around the clock system with his medications and feedings. His siblings doted over him and loved him all the time. Tate was receiving physical therapy weekly to help with his development. Everything was progressing and moving forward.

On June 11th everything changed for Tate. While coming home from his first major checkup in Pittsburgh, he went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. Garret immediately got off the highway and began CPR on Tate while 911 was called. First responders and an ambulance arrived and rushed him to the nearest hospital where they worked to keep Tate alive. He was stabilized and then taken to Penn State Children's Hospital PICU. After closely being monitored and tested over the past week, it has been determined our little Tate has no brain function allowing him to live on his own.

It is with great sadness and pain on Monday June 17th we all had to say good-bye or as my son says, see you later, to our little Tater man. He will be greatly missed by his family as he now begins his new journey in Heaven. There are no words to express the heartbreak and sorrow our family has endured over these past several days, other than to look upon the joy Tate has brought all of us in his short time in this world by touching so many hearts.

Unfortunately, Garret and Katelyn have now incurred major financial burdens due to all of the medical bills from the care needed for Tate during this time. We plan to utilize any and all funds received for these medical costs to help our son and daughter.

Thank you

Darryl and Nancy.