Families who have children born with serious health problems go through very different experiences than the ones they thought they would have. For many, delivery is followed by emergency surgeries, intensive care, and a baby that sometimes doesn’t come home for many days, weeks, or even months.
That was certainly the case for Charleigh who has pentalogy of Cantrell, a rare and life-threatening disorder that causes a combination of abdominal birth defects. The condition can impact many organs including the heart, intestines, and liver. For Charleigh, it meant being rushed to surgery as soon as she was born and staying in the hospital for 511 days.
For Charleigh’s mom and dad, it meant only seeing their daughter for 30 seconds after giving birth. It was countless hours spent at the hospital and commuting from their home nearly two hours away, for more than a year. It was worry and concern and difficult conversations.
At University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, we understand that having a sick child upends your life. So we are always looking for ways to ease the stress and encourage children to play, which can restore a sense of normalcy for families and give them a much-needed break from the seriousness of life.
One of the ways we do that is by sharing the gift of a teddy bear with our young patients. In addition to Charleigh, her older sister Kambria also received a teddy bear. Hers had a tracheal tube so Kambria could see, touch, and learn about what her sister was experiencing. “My kids bonded with those teddy bears,” says Charleigh’s mom, Katie. “It was one of the things that most helped us during our journey.”
Charleigh went home for the first time when she was almost 18 months old, along with her cherished teddy bear. “She’s not out of the woods. We still have many more surgeries ahead of us,” says Katie. “But Charleigh is stable, happy, strong, and has very much come into her terrible twos.”
Supporting the Teddy Bear Fund helps us meet the greatest needs of Little Victors like Charleigh and their families. Your generosity brings smiles to faces by providing kids with teddy bears, as well as games, books, building blocks, and other fun distractions.
