An adorable baby girl has finally been given a name - months after her mother abandoned her at a hospital in Washington DC.
The little girl had been left at the hospital by her mother - named Jessica - with traces of cocaine in her system.
Sadly, however, the newborn was unable to receive vital healthcare because her mother died before registering the birth.
After months of waiting to receive proper documentation to obtain the health insurance she needed for birth complications, the infant was eventually given the fitting moniker: Justyce.
Justyce had a rough start to life and was waiting months for proper documentation. Credit: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post/Getty
The four-month-old - whose mother struggled with addiction and mental health issues prior to her death - still desperately requires physical therapy for paralysis she sustained in her right arm.
Justyce's foster mother, Yolanda Allen-Little, has been involved in a lengthy process to obtain basic documents for the baby, and has hired an attorney to help with the situation. In fact, it required several motions to be filed in the D.C. Superior Court to satisfy the request.
"I feel like a burden has been lifted," she told The Washington Post, sharing the story of how Justyce defied the odds.
Allen-Little told the outlet that she had once been a foster mother for Justyce's mother, Jessica, staying in contact with her over the years as she fell victim to drug addiction. She recalled how she had visited Jessica in a psychiatric ward, begging her to remain there in order to receive the mental health treatment she needed.
Jessica had promised Allen-Little that she would stay there, but left later that evening. Allen-Little then received a call that she had given birth to Justyce and abandoned the baby. It was later revealed that she told a social worker she wanted Allen-Little to take Justyce home.
Born with cocaine in her system, Justyce wasn't released into Allen-Little's care until 10 days later - as the foster mother had been Turkey and then had to take care of her elderly mother for several days upon her return.
Justyce needs therapy for a paralyzed arm. Credit: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Washington Post/Getty
She told the Washington Post that she was unsure whether Justyce had been held or loved during this time, saying: "It just made me feel bad to know she was waiting up in there, with no one to love her."
To get the documents necessary for Justyce, Allen-Little enlisted the help of attorney Marla Spindel, who told the Post that she has been inundated with help from people who've heard Justyce's story.
"I've gotten so many calls and emails from people who want to help," she said. "Some people are dropping off diapers and formula at our office. There are people who have just called to see what happened with the baby or what they can do. People have really just shown their humanity, and it's amazing, the outpouring of love and support."
A GoFundMe has also been set up for Justyce to help her overcome her rocky start in the world. As of this writing, more than $32,000 has been raised. "Funding will go towards legal, medical fees and eventually education for Baby Justyce," the page reads.
Despite the rocky start, Justyce is now with Allen-Little, who is caring for her and giving her all the love she deserves.
Featured image credit: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post/Getty
The parents of a baby girl who survived a stroke in the womb are speaking out about their daughter's "biggest, brightest smile" despite the many challenges she has faced in her short life.
When 27-year-old Amy Cawley was 34-weeks pregnant, she became concerned that she had not felt her baby more in three days. Previous scans showed her unborn daughter was small, but this had not concerned the doctors.
However, after receiving another scan at Poole Hospital, Dorset, England, Amy was told her baby's heart rate was very low and that she required an emergency c-section.
Amy recalled: "They told me afterward if they had waited another 48 hours, Darcie wouldn’t have made it. It was so scary to think how close we’d come to losing her."
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On December 9, 2019, Darcie-May Ferris was born weighing 4lb 7oz to proud parents Amy and 26-year-old prison officer Alex Ferris.
Sadly, moments after Darcie arrived, medics noticed that both her arms were discolored and covered in black birthmark-like lesions. Father Alex said: "The atmosphere in the room after she was delivered was very strange. They told us her arms didn’t look normal."
They transferred Darcie to neo-natal intensive care and then transferred to Southampton General Hospital, in Hampshire, where specialist staff were more equipped to deal with burns and skin grafts.
Amy and Alex - still unable to hold their newborn daughter - were later told that Darcie had suffered a stroke in the womb, which was caused by a blood clot traveling from her shoulder.
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Amy said: "We don’t know why it happened or whether it could happen again if Darcie has a baby sister or brother.
"I had my placenta tested to see if it could be a genetic problem, but the tests did not come back with anything.
"Darcie was very heavily sedated for the first 10 days of her life, so she was not in pain, but she was in an incubator which made it really difficult because we couldn’t hold her.
"We couldn’t cuddle her until she was eight days old which was so hard. We wanted desperately to bond with her, but not being able to touch her made it more difficult."
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As a result of the clots, Darcie was placed on medication in an attempt to thin her blood and break up the clots. At first, it seemed like the treatment was working, as Darcie's left arm started to go back to its normal color a couple of weeks after she was born. However, it was too late for the fingers on her left hand.
Alex explained: "Her thumb and index finger on her left hand were okay, but she had three black fingers, and it became clear they were not going to last."
One of the parent's most difficult moments came when some of Darcie's fingers fell off as they were giving her a bath. Alex recalled:
"We had to let them fall off. In fact, we were bathing her one day and a couple of her fingers just fell off. We had been expecting it to happen, but it was horrible, and we didn’t really know how to deal with it.
"Her fingers looked like little sultanas.
“Her first operation was to have those tidied up when she was six weeks old. The skin had come away and left the bone, so the surgeon had to trim the bone back to allow the skin to heal over it."
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The focus then turned to Darcie’s right arm, which didn't appear to be healing as well as the left.
"It wasn’t clear what the best option would be – either to amputate or to play the waiting game and see if it healed itself, because a baby’s skin has a better ability to heal than an adult’s," Alex said, adding: "The surgeons decided to leave it a bit longer, but it was awful because her skin was a greeny-grey color. The skin had gone necrotic, which is where the tissue and cells start to die, and smelled really bad."
Then came some good news. After spending Christmas and New Year's in hospital, Alex and Amy were finally allowed to bring baby Darcie home in January.
However, the family was not out of the woods. Back home, they continued to change their daughter's dressings every day, and would have still have to go into hospital for weekly appointments, where doctors monitored Darcie’s progress and carried out gradual amputations on her right arm.
Alex said surgeons chose not to remove Darcie's whole arm in one go because they were hopeful that the skin would heal itself, and they wanted to give her as much length as possible.
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Amy said: "The worst thing was if she was going to have an amputation, she would have to fast from 2am the day before and she didn’t understand that, obviously. She just knew she was hungry and not getting fed.
"We did that for four weeks, and they were gradually making her right arm shorter. The fingers on her right hand had been dead for so long that they fused into her palm, so it was like one big block of dead skin."
After six operations, baby Darcie now has just her thumb and index finger on her left hand, and her right arm has been amputated from the forearm. Sadly, she will still need to undergo further operations on her right arm until the deteriorated skin is completely removed and replaced with healthy skin grafts.
Now, Darcie-May's parents are looking to the future and are focusing on physiotherapy. To help with the costs of her ongoing care, they have set up a GoFundMe, which has raised currently raised more than £6,200 from friends, family, and well-wishers of their £10,000 target.
Alex said: "There are a lot of unknowns at the moment. We don’t know how much movement she will have in her arms, or whether it will affect her ability to crawl.
"We also don’t know what the impact the stroke will have had until she starts to develop and to learn, so now we’re trying to fundraise via GoFundMe to help her lead as normal a life as possible."
You can donate to help the family by visiting their GoFundMe HERE.
Speaking about his daughter's future using prosthetic limbs, Alex added: "We want to give her the option to have prosthetic limbs when she’s a bit older. The NHS prosthetics are very basic, but there are some amazing prosthetics out there which have grip and movement."
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But despite all she has faced, Darcie is still a bright and bubbly baby who is adored by her parents and siblings.
"Darcie is the most amazing little girl with a beautiful smile. She’s developing a little personality now. She knows what she wants and behaves like a little diva," Alex said, adding:
"Her big sisters adore her, and are not fazed by her hands and arms at all. It’s nice that she has them to look out for her, but I think with what she’s gone through, she’s going to have a really thick skin and be able to hold her own."
Liz Smith, director of nursing at Franciscan Children’s hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts, recently made two dreams come true.
At the end of each workday at the hospital, Liz would visit Gisele, an infant who didn't get any visitors during her stay there. Born at 29 weeks gestation, Gisele was diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome - due to her birth mother's drug use during pregnancy - leading to the state gaining custody of her in 2016.
Now, Gisele has officially become Liz' daughter, after she volunteered to foster her.
According to the blog run by the hospital, Gisele was born weighing under 2 lbs, and spent three months on ventilator support before she was transferred to the hospital. During her stay there, it was only the 45-year-old Liz that visited her. The mother had recently learned that she was not a good candidate for IVF treatments, and decided to foster the then-9-month-old Gisele once the biological parents were unable to look after her.
“When I got the call that the parents’ rights were terminated, I imagined that it would be a day of relief,” Smith told the blog. “And it was a day I was really sad. I was really happy. But I was really sad for them. I was gaining her but they were losing her. And to try to battle addiction and being a mom, that’s impossible.”
Two years after Gisele first landed in the custody of the state, Liz legally became her mother - and is now looking after her at home. Gisele still needs to receive nutrition through a feeding tube, but her new mom has helped her to start eating some solid foods, with her favourites being pizza and avocados. According to Smith, who spoke to the Washington Post about the journey, the judge told her on last October's adoption day:
“When a judge walks in the room, everyone stands out of respect. But today I stand in respect for you, Liz because you deserve the respect from this room. A birthing day is a miracle. But adopting a child from miles away is destiny. That’s what brought you two together.”
According to Liz, her need to help others comes from her own mother, who passed away when Liz was just 19 years old. She decided to honour her mother's legacy by following in her selfless example. "My mom was a pediatric nurse who always put others first,” Smith said. “So I grew up wanting to be a nurse, too.”
“Since the moment I met her, there was something behind her striking blue eyes capturing my attention,” Smith said of her new daughter. “I felt that I needed to love this child and keep her safe.”
“Her new favorite song is ‘You Are My Sunshine'. And every time she sings it, I think to myself, ‘You have no idea.’”
While Gisele hasn't had the easiest start to her life, it looks like her new mom will make sure the rest of it is wonderful.
A young family is getting the greatest Christmas gift of all, as their baby girl is finally coming home after almost nine months in hospital.
In a remarkable journey of resilience and hope, baby Evangeline "Evie" Statler has defied the odds and been discharged from St. Louis Children's Hospital, much to the joy of her parents, Maddie and Dylan Statler.
As reported by PEOPLE, Evie's miraculous story began when she was born prematurely in March - a staggering 16 weeks ahead of schedule and weighing just 14 ounces.
The Statler family's journey was shared in a news release by BJC HealthCare, which includes St. Louis Children's Hospital among its 14 hospitals.
Maddie, Evie's mother, recalled the initial shock and fear of having a baby born so prematurely, saying, "It was definitely scary. We didn't know if we both would make it or not and didn't know what would really happen. She was so tiny, like a little baby bird."
Evie's premature birth came with a host of health challenges, including pulmonary hypertension. The couple was informed that their newborn had a 50-60% chance of survival. Dylan, Evie's father, described the whirlwind experience, telling KSDK: "It all happened so fast."
In July, on what would have been Evie's due date, she was transferred from a hospital in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to St. Louis Children's Hospital for advanced treatment.
Dr. Melissa Riley, a neonatologist who played a crucial role in Evie's care, highlighted the advancements in neonatology that have enabled medical professionals to push the limits of viability for premature babies in similar situations to Evie.
Over the ensuing months, Maddie and Dylan juggled the responsibilities of caring for their son at home while visiting Evie in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Despite the turbulent ups and downs, Evie's remarkable progress has been described as "almost a complete 180". Her health has improved to the extent that she was finally discharged from the hospital on a momentous Monday (December 18) - which means she will be home for her first Christmas.
Mom Maddie expressed the overwhelming relief of having Evie home, saying: "It feels like we can breathe again. A lot of days it felt like we were holding our breath underwater and couldn't come up for air."
Dr. Riley praised the collaborative effort of the medical team and the family's unwavering determination - highlighting that many people had worked toward the goal of giving the Statler family the best possible gift for Christmas.
And, as a result, the Statler family has developed deep bonds with the medical staff during their challenging journey. Maddie revealed how "the nurses and whole team feel like family now and brought light into our darkest days" at the hospital.
As the family welcomes their daughter home for the holidays, Maddie affectionately described it as "the best Christmas gift ever."
A 10-year-old girl named Miracle Moore lived up to her name after she bravely helped her pregnant mother deliver her baby sister at home.
When Viola Fair, 30, from Jennings, Missouri, went into labor three weeks before her due date, her daughter jumped into action after seeing that there was not enough time to get to the hospital.
Miracle contacted 911 and connected with a dispatcher named Scott Stranghoener who calmly spoke with her through the birthing process, as reported by Today.
The fourth grader unlocked the front door for the emergency responders and stayed on the phone with the operator for nearly 11 minutes as she waited for the ambulance to arrive.
Listen to Miracle's 911 call below:
The little girl followed the dispatcher's instructions over the phone and told her mother that she needed to lie down on her back in the center of a bed or on the floor.
Stranghoener then advised Miracle to grab towels or blankets and place them underneath Fair's body as she was struggling to lie on her back.
The mother could be heard screaming in pain in the background while her daughter assured her by saying, "It's ok, mama, it's ok!" before telling Stranghoener, "I think her water broke."
"She's coming! she's coming!" Miracle yelled, firmly demanding that her mother needed to lie down. She then saw her baby sister's head and said: "She's here! She's poking out."
"She's out! She's breathing and she's crying now," the daughter told the dispatcher after her mother delivered the baby. Stranghoener then told advised her to gently wipe off newborn Jayla's mouth and nose.
The youngster made sure the umbilical cord was not wrapped around Jayla's neck before she wrapped her in a clean towel and covered her head, per the dispatcher's instructions.
"I learned pretty quick that we had a serious situation." Stranghoener told NBC news affiliate KSDK News. "We have a set of protocols that we follow, and she followed all of my instructions to a 'T' and did an amazing job."
Fair also said that the entire experience "was definitely a miracle because once I had the baby, she came out, I couldn’t really grab her and pick her up, and then Miracle came and she wrapped her up in a towel".
"She wiped her off and rubbed her back a little bit, so she could cry. So she was really helpful. I am very thankful," the mother said of her daughter.
Following the successful delivery, Miracle revealed at an event - where she was awarded certificates for her achievement - that she wants to become a uniformed paramedic in the future.
According to the New York Post, she also added that the best part of the entire experience was getting to be the first person who saw Jayla.
A one-year-old tragically passed away after being left in a hot car outside of a hospital for hours.
The foster mother of the child who was left in a vehicle was on the way to work in the morning at a local Washington hospital when she allegedly forgot that her baby was in the back seat.
Upon her return after a nine-hour shift, she reportedly discovered the one-year-old and quickly rushed the toddler to the hospital, but unfortunately, they could not be revived.
Speaking to PEOPLE about the incident, police said that the child’s foster mother forgot about the toddler in the car when she arrived at Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Washington last Wednesday - a day when the area's temperature was approximately between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
However, when officials arrived at the scene, the internal temperature of the car was around the 110 mark.
Puyallup Police Captain Don Bourbon told the outlet that "the child was unresponsive and they attempted life-saving measures."
The foster mother, who is a social worker at the hospital, was said to be distressed upon discovering what had happened and she and her husband are now cooperating with the police as they conduct an investigation into the matter.
"A tragic incident took place at the Good Samaritan campus Wednesday involving an employee and their child," the hospital said in a statement to PEOPLE. "This incident also impacted a number of our other team members. MultiCare has offered a number of paths for support for our employees. We extend our condolences to everyone involved."
So far, no charges have been filed though the Pierce County Prosecutor's Office stated that they will wait until the investigation has been concluded to make any further decisions.
"We all are hectic in our lives," Bourbon said. "We all have a lot going on. And this unfortunate situation is that, hopefully it reminds us to take a step back and slow down and just make sure that we are taking care of our families and taking care of each other."
Credit: D3sign/Getty
As per the Seattle Fire Department, people should be more careful on hot days, especially when it comes to leaving children in vehicles due to the speed at which it can heat up.
"Leaving a small child or pet in a car alone is never a good idea," they advised. "It’s especially dangerous on sunny days. It doesn’t have to be a hot day for the temperature inside of a car to reach high enough temperatures to cause heat stroke. Heat stroke can cause serious damage to the brain and other organs."
They also added that "young children are particularly at risk, as their bodies heat up three to five times faster than an adult's."
Our thoughts are with the family affected by this unfortunate tragedy.
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