By Betty Gandee
While expecting a baby, those months are supposed to be spent joyously awaiting your new bundle of joy. When something unexpectedly happens during a routine office visit it shakes you to your core as a parent. That’s just what happened in the case of Justin and Courtney Witt of Clay, WV.
When Courtney walked into the office that day, she wasn’t expecting to hear that baby Eli James had such a low heart rate that he would need a pacemaker. Her team of doctors monitored her and Eli closely. He was welcomed into the world on 9/21/17 at Ruby Memorial hospital in Morgantown, where they placed his pacemaker when he was only six days old. Everything went great and he was released. He spent many nights in the hospital fighting off colds and viruses the following months. He was admitted back into Ruby hospital in December due to failure to thrive. Several tests were ran and they came to the conclusion that he had a leaky heart valve and two holes in his heart that hadn’t closed. At that time, he was too young to have the necessary surgeries to repair the issues, so being hopeful, they decided to try medicine. Sadly, this did not work and he started to get very sick. He was admitted back into the hospital in March and put on a ventilator. Finally, after 28 days he was ready to go home.
Before the Witts got discharged, baby Eli went into heart failure and developed Pulmonary hypertension. He was immediately flown to Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital where he underwent emergency open heart surgery and was placed on life support. His second surgery was shortly after, in which they replaced a heart valve, that barely fit due to his small size. They started him on a medication only three other children had been given to try and reverse the effects of his hypertension. His lungs were so damaged a trach was required. Courtney says that he is defiantly their fighter and a miracle from God and that without God and the great care they received, he wouldn’t be here today.
This family is now waiting to bring their precious baby home. They cannot do that until they have a registered LPN that can provide the care that is needed.
