Personal message

Join Our Fight for Brayden 

We desperately need your help with my grandson, Brayden, who is now 6 weeks old and was born with a severe congenital abnormality.

My son, Travis and his wife Kylie took a couple of years to fall pregnant with their first child. What was the most exciting time of their lives quickly turned into any parents worst nightmare, they went for their 20-week sonar only to receive the heartbreaking news that their little boy had CDH a right-sided congenital diaphragmatic hernia( he had a hole in his diaphragm, which is normally meant to separate the lungs from the stomach contents, but his liver and intestines were developing in his chest,  compressing and preventing his lungs from growing). The doctor said their baby boy had a 15% chance of survival.

They had already decided to name their boy Brayden, after Travis’ older brother Byron, who was tragically killed in a motorbike accident when Travis was 17 years old. They believed Brayden was sent to earth by Byron.

They researched all possible treatment options, and the unanimous conclusion was the FETO procedure in Belgium. This would improve his survival chance to 40-50%.

Everything was going well in Belgium but on 25 November things took a turn for the worst, Kylie’s water broke, 9 weeks too early. It was a very stressful few days, knowing that if he was born, they would only have a few days with him before they had to say goodbye. Miraculously the contractions stopped. Because Kylie’s water had broken however, she had to remain in hospital at a cost of €1000 per day, an additional expense nobody had planned for. The unanticipated medical costs were adding up every day and Kylie asked if they would let her fly back to SA, but the doctors refused.

By an almost unheard-of miracle, Brayden managed to remain inside until 37 weeks, and was born on the 9th of January weighing 2.45kgs.

Our Brayden has shown from that first day what a little fighter he is, overcoming every obstacle thrown his way. He sailed through his repair surgery at only 3 days old, where they found his case the most severe case there could be.

We are so incredibly proud of Brayden but unfortunately this NICU stay has completely exhausted all finances. Our beautiful Brayden is fighting for his life in a country where Travis and Kylie do not have medical aid cover. So far, the NICU bill for 1 month is sitting at R1 300 000, and the doctors predict he will still be admitted for another month.

They have enquired from their medical aid in SA numerous times regarding paying some of the costs as Brayden was meant to be born in SA but they are refusing to cover any international expenses. The accounts are getting to a point where we are not sure where to turn anymore and we fear we will never be able to get Brayden home.

Although Travis's work had given him 3 months paid leave he decided that he needed to come back to SA to he could keep paying the bills and make sure he kept up with the Medical Aid (leaving his new born baby in NICU.)  There have been numerous instances where his condition was extremely critical and his lifeless body turned blue and they did not know if the doctors were able to save him.

Travis and Kylie thought each time that the time had come for them to say goodbye to their beautiful baby boy and let him cross the rainbow bridge.

The amount of stress they have been through as a family has been immeasurable  we have been helping them financially but it's not enough. We are not sure what the total cost will be, we just know it will be more than we have. Travis and Kylie don’t know how they are going to pay for their baby boy’s medical costs and get him home.

If there is any way you could help, no matter how small it would be a major relief for them. We really need our tiny miracle baby, Brayden to be able to come home safely to their family.

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