Family Profile
James Family Home: Buffalo, MO (Dallas County)
Our story is not an easy one to tell,
and if it didn’t have a happy ending, I don’t know that I could. My fiancé, Tiffany, and I had been together four years by the time she became pregnant. She was eight weeks along at her first appointment and that’s when we learned that we had been blessed, all naturally, with a quad pregnancy. Unfortunately, we had already lost three of the four babies, and we were referred to a specialist for further analysis. There it was quickly discovered that the remaining twin was A-cardiac, meaning blood was pumping through a shared umbilical cord trying to keep its twin alive. From that point on she was monitored closely with an appointment every week. Around 32 weeks, Tiffany had several complications and was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia that was life threatening. She was to be hospitalized until our baby was born. Then on 6/22/2020, Mary Bell came into the world a whopping 3 pounds and 10 ounces at 20:20. Tiffany was only able to hold her about 30 seconds before Mary was rushed to the NICU to be monitored, where she only needed a CPAP machine for assisted breathing and a feeding tube. While in the NICU, Mary received a CAT scan to check all of her internal organs revealing a few complications we were told were nothing out of the ordinary for such a young preemie, and we should not be too terribly concerned but they would need to be monitored. We were in the NICU for a total of six weeks. During this time, the Ronald McDonald House provided us a room at the Cox location about 10 minutes from Mercy Hospital where Mary was. Due to COVID-19 things were a bit different and we didn’t get to experience all the amenities of the House. Aside from, our room, we were able to use the laundry facilities and were given food vouchers for Mercy Hospital, which we were extremely grateful for. The staff at the House was extremely kind and delivered dinner to our door on multiple occasions; we could not have asked for a better host! As of today, Mary is surpassing expectations by leaps and bounds! Thankfully, she has grown out of all possible complications and only sees a specialist every three months for checkups. Thank you, Ronald McDonald House, for all you do!
#forRMHCozarks
ShareAHeart.org