The Taylor Family

Charlotte Elizabeth is such a sweet, strong & opinionated little girl! She’s been so tough while enduring so much. We are in awe of this beautiful tiny human! Her strength and resilience inspires us all. She wins the heart of every nurse & doctor she encounters! She was born prematurely in 6/26/20 at 34 weeks with a bowel obstruction known now as an ileal atresia. She had surgery when she was two days old where they removed part of her small intestine. The surgeon was unable to reattach the intestine back together because they were two different sizes so she was given two stomas: an ileal ostomy & a mucous fistula (where they brought the two ends on the outside of her body). The healing process has been slow. It took over a month before she was able to tolerate more than a continuous drip of one ML an hour (we’d try to increase and she would through up). After not getting much output (stool) our of her ostomy a surgeon suggested putting a catheter into it to see if that would help relieve any pressure. It worked and she was then able to put out stool. This helped her become less distended & so we were finally able to increase her feedings. By then end of August we had gotten up to 16ml per hour. We also started to re-feed her stool back into her mucous fistula to help keep the other side of her bowel active. On September 1st she went back in for an exploratory surgery & they were (just barely) able to reconnect her!! We are still in the recovery process and are patiently waiting for her bowel to work all the way through so we can start feedings and eventually discharged from the hospital. We are looking for financial assistance due to Charlotte being hospitalized since birth & undergoing two surgeries. Both myself and Charlotte’s dad have been furloughed due to Covid & my maternity disability pay was denied by the state of NY because I was on furlough and not working leading up to Charlotte’s birth. We appreciate help with medical expenses as well as rent & living expenses. We want to provide the best we can for our little girl so she remains healthy and has everything she needs!