We hope to see you at 2:00pm EST on Sunday, January 5th for our monthly support group: Ask an O Dad!
Please join us as we host Alyster, Andrew, and Ryan, all O Dads to amazing O Warriors. Our dads will each share about their own omphalocele journey and how their O warriors are doing today.
As always, everyone from the omphalocele community is welcome (parents of new O babies, experienced parents with older O children, pregnant mothers and expectant family members, grandparents, friends, adult omphalocele survivors) and you are all an important part of our group.
Meet the O Dads!
Andrew is a Physical Therapist Assistant working in one of the largest hospitals in Arizona in the cardiac, neuro, and trauma ICUs. He has two children. At his wife’s 11 week scan, they discovered that their son Kenny was diagnosed with a large omphalocele, which contained his liver and intestines. Initially, early scans were ordered because doctors suspected that Andrew’s wife may be experiencing a miscarriage. However, the results were completely unexpected. Kenny was originally scheduled for a planned C-Section but unexpectedly arrived at 35.5 weeks and spent 21 days in the NICU. Due to his double inguinal hernias, Kenny’s closure surgery was performed much earlier than anticipated, at 4 months. He spent another 4 days in the hospital before being discharged. Since his closure surgery, Kenny has made remarkable progress and is now thriving. He’s almost a year old and enjoys his physical therapy appointments to help him achieve his milestones. He also loves attending daycare and radiates happiness whenever he meets someone.
Ryan’s son Elliott was born November 24, 2023 with a giant omphalocele that contained mostly his liver. Besides his omphalocele, he was born without any genetic defects or respiratory issues. After spending almost 30 days in the NICU at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA. he was released to come home just shy of Christmas. Elliott is healthy and doing well today!
Alyster is the father of O baby Magnolia. At Magnolia’s 17 week anatomy scan, her parents were informed that she was diagnosed with a Giant “O”. The news was devastating and multiple doctors had strongly recommended termination. As parents, Alyster and his wife could not accept this as an option. They were also recommended to do an amniocentesis procedure to check for any abnormalities. As parents, they once again refused the testing due to the results not altering their decisions for Magnolia. In April 2023 Magnolia was born a beautiful baby girl and admitted into the NICU. Upon her 33 day stay in the NICU Magnolia underwent her first surgery for skin closure. She was also administered medication for a possible infection after surgery that ultimately caused her to lose all of her hearing. Magnolia is now 20 months old. She is strong and thriving, meeting many age-appropriate goals but still falling short on a few. Around 12 months old she also received tubes in her ears which miraculously gave her the ability to hear again. Magnolia has been an inspiration to many in this world including Alyster as her father. Her perseverance and journey has led Alyster to follow his passion of nursing and he is currently in a RN program to become a nurse. Her journey has inspired Alyster to strive to become a NICU nurse himself and have the ability to help other parents and babies during their journey of an Omphalocele.
Brandon has been happily married to his wife, Lauren, for five years. He has worked in marketing at various companies over the last nine years, and he currently serves as a Marketing Operations Manager at Bridgestone Americas. Outside of work, Brandon and his wife love to travel, spend time with friends, and attend sporting events at Western Kentucky University. His daughter, Emerson, was born on November 27, 2023, with Tetralogy of Fallot and a giant Omphalocele. From the start, she has been a little fighter, overcoming every obstacle thrown her way. Emerson spent 51 days in the Vanderbilt Children’s NICU, and was welcomed home on January 17, 2023. When she was four months old, she returned to Vanderbilt for her Tetralogy of Fallot repair surgery. This seven-hour procedure was filled with uncertainty and fear for her parents; however, she did amazingly well and is now a thriving one-year-old. Brandon and his wife continue to monitor Emerson’s Omphalocele and are working with her medical team to determine an estimated closure date.
