Katie Aycock

The March of Dimes is a huge help to hospitals like the ones that saved my son, Elias’s life — and frankly saved my life, too. I walk in the March for Babies for Elias and for all the other premature babies we came across in our 197-day NICU journey and also our 123-day PICU journey. Elias is an 8 year old former 27-week preemie who was born in southeast Georgia by emergency c-section in June of 2017, when I was diagnosed with severe preeclampsia while traveling back from Disney World with my husband. The small hospital where he was born was unable to care for him and he was transferred immediately after birth to a larger Jacksonville, FL, hospital. Elias remained in that hospital for two months until he was stable enough to transfer by fixed wing jet to a Brenner Children's Hospital. Elias had many complications in his long NICU stay, but after surgery to repair a small hole in his heart, surgery to place a feeding tube in his stomach, and 197 days of growing, Elias was sent home with a feeding pump and some oxygen through a nasal cannula. Exactly a month later, he was re-admitted into the PICU for an exacerbation of his chronic lung issues and with a diagnosis of aspiration pneumonia. The medical team really struggled trying to control Elias’s reflux issues and his rising CO2 levels, and as a family we made a decision with his medical team to place a second feeding tube into his small intestines, and place an artificial airway into his trachea. He healed well after this surgery and was able to come home from the PICU in time to celebrate his first birthday in June of 2018. Elias spent a total of 320 days in the hospital in his first year of life. Currently, Elias is thriving at home. He had his tracheostomy reversed after airway reconstruction surgery at Cincinnati Children's Hospital in May of last year, but he still has a g-tube to help with hydration. He is a healthy 8 year old and is improving every day with the help of his loving mommy and daddy, in-home nurses, and committed medical team. This boy is a living and breathing miracle and continues to surprise us every day as he grows and changes. Elias and I both very nearly didn’t make it out of his first days of life and we are celebrating life every day now. Premature birth affects about 380,000 babies here in the United States. Right now, moms babies need all the help they can get and research from the March of Dimes is helping figure out the causes of premature birth in hopes of saving many lives in the future. I’m walking in the March for Babies to get the message out about this terrible problem and you can help. Please make a secure donation to help me reach my goal. Together we can help the March of Dimes fight prematurity so more babies can get the strongest start possible.