Support Krista and Gimena after the loss of their baby Aaron

Last night, Saturday, October 19th, at just 2.5 years of life, baby Aaron Zapata-Noble lost his battle and Jesus gained a precious angel. All who knew him are heartbroken, and for his moms, they are returning home from Stanford Hospital yet again, but this time without their baby boy.

Krista and Gimena have given all for their chosen son and now they must find a way forward, all while having recently been denied by every program for financial help they applied for. They’ve been at his bedside for months, unable to work, and now have to find the funds to put Aaron to rest in the way he so deserves. They are facing having to go back to work without time to grieve and mourn and start to heal from the loss of the baby they loved so much.

It was March 2023, I met my very first patient as a brand new nurse… a beautiful, almost one-year-old, baby boy that was returning home from a 6-month Stanford Hospital stay where he’d battled and survived many challenges. His homecoming, although exciting for his loving moms, also included a newly placed tracheostomy for the needed 24/7 ventilator support, a new gastric tube for receiving nutrition, and a new way of life, including 24-hour nursing care in their home. It didn’t take long to fall deeply in love with Baby Aaron and his amazing moms, who had almost a year prior, said “YES” to open their hearts and home to this newborn baby boy.

Baby Aaron came into this world with a plethora of health problems, including muscular dystrophy, and a family who was not capable of meeting the needs of this precious baby boy. Krista and Gimena had full knowledge of the challenges that they would face when they agreed to foster baby Aaron and from day one, they embraced him as their own and began the fight to give him the best life they could. Unfortunately, just 6 months after bringing their love home, he was hit with RSV and parainfluenza. This was the beginning of the difficult and unpredictable road for baby Aaron and his moms.

Despite all the medical complications, the daily stress of keeping him safe and out of the hospital, dealing with all the county’s social services programs, the loss of their privacy with constant caregivers and nurses in their home, the countless trips to Stanford and weeks-long stays he would often have there, in December 2023, they officially adopted Aaron Zapata-Noble. He was now legally their son!

Unfortunately, over the next months, Aaron would start to face more health problems due to the complex and never-before-seen or studied genetic abnormalities he had. Every day, Krista and Gimena placed his needs above their own. They took countless days and weeks off of work to fight for his life and future and keep him as healthy as possible. They are blessed with employers who have allowed them the time to care for him, but when you don’t work you don’t get paid. This was never a thought for them, as he was worth any financial troubles they faced. They did everything by the book and with total transparency when applying for the programs created to help families in these horrible situations. Because of their decision to go through the proper channels to get help, they were denied for almost everything they applied for: state disability, social security disability for the baby, food stamp help, unemployment, paternity leave, etc. Denied, denied, denied.

Then this summer, Aaron began to have problems with his blood and liver and was not able to receive the life-saving transfusions locally, so they were forced to continuously leave home for stays at Stanford to receive transfusions and endure test after test to try and find answers while keeping Aaron going. This last stay in the hospital was devastatingly difficult, as they learned more every day of the problems Aaron's little body was experiencing, ones that they had no answers for. Days turned to weeks then months, then came the news they never expected to hear… “There is nothing left for us to try, Aaron will pass from this…”

As Aaron’s nurse and now a close friend of his family, I humbly come to our community to ask for help in providing for this family what they truly deserve. They took in one of the many foster babies born in our area to moms/families who cannot care for them, they legally adopted this baby with full knowledge of how it would change their life, they always kept hope, they fought and they gave all for him. It’s time for them to feel the support and gratitude, the love and the blessings they deserve for their selfless acts and unwavering love and affection for their son Aaron until the very end.

Please consider joining me and wrapping our community's arms around this wonderful family.