January 27th, 2021

KPD was made aware of a single mother of 3 year old son and 9 days ago she gave birth to a baby girl. Baby was born with Gastroschisis, which means her bowels are outside of her abdomen floating in amniotic fluid. When mother gave birth to baby was taken immediately and transported to Seattle children’s for surgery to get her bowels back inside her belly. Due to some infection in her intestine and a spot they were worried about rupturing they did a silo technique which allows gravity to do the work over time (up to 5 days). Mother is not alone in this journey, she has family support but the father’s baby is not one of them. Mother had done her best to prepare for this new coming blessing but due to Covid she had to start a new job and she does not qualify for maturity leave. Mother worked two jobs 70+ hour work weeks for as long as she could and then eventually dropped down to one job full time and sometimes overtime. As she prepared to leave for Seattle to be with baby she was in a car accident. Everything she had saved went to repairing her car so that it was drivable so she could have transportation while she is in Seattle alone with baby. The baby had her first surgery on Friday 1/29, many more to come. She is now breathing on her own. Mother was able to hold her for the first time on Sunday 1/31/21. Baby is expected to stay at Seattle’s Children for 2-3 months and will have a feeding tube for about 8-12 months.