It wasn’t but a few months ago we got the word that this little guy, Mazikai (also known as Maze and Mr. Cuteness) would be coming to The Children’s Home & Lemieux Family Center after a long journey at a nearby area hospital. This tiny one-pound ten-ounce warrior spent many days growing outside of his mother’s womb (when most babies are still inside) after an emergency C-section at 25 weeks.
His reason for being transferred to The Children’s Home was because while he was medically stable, he required 24-hour nursing care and his parents DaVontae and Jessica needed to learn how to take care of a medically complex child.
Maze is fed through a gastrostomy tube in his stomach; has had a tracheostomy and needs a ventilator to breathe. At The Children’s Home, DaVontae and Jessica learned procedures, step by step, like how to change his g-tube, how to feed him through his g-tube, how to clean and care for his tracheostomy and how to switch out the ventilator tubing. This can be a scary step for many because the babies constant flow of air is cut off as the tubing is being changed. It’s only a few seconds but parents must act confidently and quickly.
“The training here has been amazing. The nurses and medical staff are available to train us anytime.” Jessica says. “I’m so glad to have learned all that I have here and feel way more knowledgeable now than when we first arrived. Honestly, it’s a wonderful place. It’s an amazing place.”
Donating to The Children’s Home not only enables us to continue to support families like Mazikai’s by providing an environment and encouraging staff, which is conducive to the learning process, but also allows The Children’s Home to ensure that no family receives a medical bill and caregivers can stay on site for free.
If you’d like to change a child’s life, please donate now.