Story
Name
Julian Bertils
Injury/Illness
Infant-Related Illness
Julian was born on August 30th in Crookston, MN. Shortly after his birth, at two days old, we were sent to Sanford Hospital in Fargo, ND as he hadn't passed his meconium. We spent 4 days in the PICU while they tested for Hirschsprung disease and cystic fibrous. He was diagnosed with meconium ileus. We were able to go home and he seemed to be doing better and started to gain weight. When he was 7 weeks old he became extremely fussy. We took him back to our family doctor and he suggest it could be colic. He went from a baby that slept and ate, to one that would hardly sleep and it was a battle to feed him. At the end of October, we discovered he had an inguinal hernia. We went back down to Sanford Hospital in Fargo, ND on November 30th for his bilateral inguinal hernia surgery. After his surgery he seemed to get worse instead of better. Extremely fussy and went from sleeping in 2-3 hour chunks to sleeping no more than 45 mins at a time and was barely consuming 15-17 oz of formula a day. After another trip to our family doctor in December, we were sent back down to Sanford in Fargo where he was hospitalized for 5 days due to failure to thrive and was diagnosed with reflux. He had dropped just below 9 lbs and was losing weight. We were discharged on 21st once he had shown weight gain, but once we were back home, feedings and sleep were still a struggle, even while being on his antacids. At his four month check up on the 30th, we discovered he had only gained .2 lbs. Feeling defeated and emotionally exhausted, our family doctor suggested we come to Children's Hospital in Minneapolis for further treatment. After a long 4 1/2 hour drive, we rang in the New Year in his hospital room here, and we will remain here until we can get answers as to why he continues to not thrive and gain weight. He struggles to breathe most of the time and they have determined he has laryngomalacia and are looking to schedule surgery for tomorrow to scope him as well as fix the laryngomalacia at the same time. He is currently being feed through an NJ tube to ensure he is getting the nutrients he needs and to help ease the reflux. Our 6 year old son is at home with Grandma and Grandpa while we are down here with Julian. We are very thankful to everyone at Children's for all they've done for our sweet little boy. We are praying that we will be able to get answers and begin on the path to healing and recovery.