Brielle Alyse Ann was born at 9:36 Am on Thursday the 16th of October, 2008. She was a big beautiful girl weighing in at 9lbs, 14oz. Both Mommy and baby made it through happy and seemingly healthy and spent the next three days in the Maternity ward recovering and being welcomed by friends and family, especially by big sister Alayna. The pair were released on Sunday around noon and after a brief visit to Gram's. The happy family went home to relax and recover. Brielle began to spit up both feedings from Mommy and bottled formula that evening. The Mommy called the hospital and was told not to worry to much about spitting up and just to make sure we made a scheduled appointment the next morning with our pediatrician. As the night progressed however Brielle continued to be ill and we brought her into the Emergency room at 2 am. The triage nurse rushed us back and a team of emergency room staff recognized that Brielle was very ill, getting worse and made great efforts to save her life. As soon as she was stable she was transferred to the PICU upstairs at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Children's Hospital. In the PICU resesitative efforts were continued and batteries of tests were performed to figure out why she was so ill. Thankfully despite no other indications that the problem was due to a blocked intestine a contrast dye test was performed and it lead to a surgery to unblock the obstruction. The operation was performed by Dr. Cilly, who oddly enough performed all three of big sister Alayna's surgeries, and it was discovered that at some point Sunday evening or Monday morning Brielle's small intestine had twisted upon itself. At the point of the surgery a good deal was already necropic and was removed. Brielle was returned to the PICU to recover and a follow up surgery was scheduled for Wednesday morning to determine how much of the remaining small intestine would survive. Despite all the prayers, well wishes and best hopes of our many friends and loved ones, on Wednesday it was discovered that none of Brielle's small intestine had survived. Brielle having no small intestine, which is where all nutrition is processed from the food we eat into energy to help the body grow and survive, is now in need of a transplant. We have gone to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital (UPMC-Childrens) who are the best in the world at transplant surgeries for Children and she was evaluated and approved and is now "on The List" for a transplant of a small intestine. We are now in the mode of keeping her as healthy as possible in expectation that she will receive a cadaveric transplant as soon as a compatible (size and blood type) organ becomes available.

Please visit Brielle's site on the Penn State Hershey Medical site.  You'll have to register to receive updates, but it's a free site and worth the extra time.