Please, Please Pray for My Newborn Cousin ~Negative 12/9 Update~

Please, Please Pray for My Newborn Cousin

Some of you know my cousin had Quadruplet Girls on November 14th..

Matelyn Christine & Rose Jean are doing wonderfully. Grace Ann has had some minor set-backs (brain bleeds mainly) but over all is stable and will hopefully be fine.

Ella Marie is not doing very well. Some of the things she is suffereing is having multiple brain bleeds, has an infection they can't find to treat and has white blood cells in her spinal fluid.

This is very serious and this little angel needs all the prayers, good vibes and thoughts she can get.

Please also keep her parents Julie and Matt in your thoughts and pray for them to have the strength they need for this time.

Thank you.

 your family is in my thoughts, kay....  all my best.

Please keep us posted Kay. I'll be sending postive vibes from California and my thoughts are with your family.

Positive thoughts headed your way!  Stay strong!

~UPDATE~

They think they have got her seizures under control now, so that is very positive!!! Please keep praying/sending positive vibes, I know it is helping!!!

~UPDATE 12/3~
this is an update straight from Julie (the girls' mommy)

Ella has a bad scab on her left cheek from the ventilator bar causing some kind of pressure infection. The plastic surgeon says that it should heal and she may need a little plastic surgery later in life. Ella is now on three seizure meds to get the seizures under control but they cause her to be pretty tired. She really doesn't open her eyes or move very much right now. The doctors hope they can tweek these meds so that she becomes more active. There are also some dark spots showing up in the right frontal lobe of her brain on her brain ultrasound. The doctors are not sure what caused them but they believe it was do to a lack of blood flow to those parts of her brain at some point, possiibly in the uterus before birth. We do not know the long term effects of this damage on her and will not know for some time. Please keep Ella in your prayers. She needs to continue to have better days and more steps forward and no more steps back.

I do ultrasound and often scan neo-natal heads (brains) in the NICU... As long as Grace Ann's IVH (inter-ventricular hemorrhage) continues to fade, should be fine.  This is very common in pre-mature births (assuming pre-mature, as nearly all multiples are...).  There may be a small cyst (1 or 2mm in size) for a couple weeks as a remnant; this is normal.

Ella Marie concerns me, and she has my thoughts and prayers that she pulls thru.  I am not familiar with the "dark spots" personally - brain hemorraghes that are not in the ventricles are echogenic (bright areas), not dark... so the blood flow issue makes sense.

This whole family has my prayers... I pray for the doctors and NICU staff as well that they are successful in treating this little angel with their talents.

Keep us posted.

God Bless,

Mike

~UPDATE 12/7~
Straight From Julie

Ella remains much of the same. However, they started decreasing her seizure meds this weekend and took her off of all her antibiotics. We have seen a small amount of movement when she is touched (i.e. wiggle toes, move foot,). We also saw a small peek at her eyes tonight which was very encouraging to Mom and Dad. Keep praying that she continues to improve.

~Negative 12/9 Update~

The short and the long of it is that brain scans have shown that Ella is brain dead beyond repairing and beyond any conscious life. I do not have the full story on it, but something happened with Ella and she had to be resusetated. Scans scince have shown that most of her brain is completely dead. They are going to wait a couple days and do the tests again a few times, but as of now Ella is completely non-responsive and brain dead and if there is no improvement her parents will have to make the decision of when to remove her from life support. Please pray for a miracle and either way that Ella is safe in the arms of God and for comfort for her family and parents, Matt & Julie especially. Thank you

Kay, I'm deeply sorry to hear that news. I can't possibly claim to fully understand, but please pass on our support to Matt and Julie and the rest of your family. We'll all be thinking of you.

dan

What sad news, Kay.  I'm so sorry.  We're sending our thoughts to you and praying for Ella.

thank you both very much. we really thought she was going to pull through. she was doing so well. it's just crazy how it can be over just like that. thanks again.