Nathaniel's story

[JessicaCummings]

Nathaniel was diagnosed with CDH in 2011 at his 18 week ultrasound because his stomach was next to his heart. After researching CDH on their own, Jessica and Chris found CHERUBS. They were the only CDH charity to return emails/ chats/ calls/ etc. Jessica and Chris traveled to both Brown University and UCSF for fetal tracheal occlusion surgery. Jessica and Nathaniel were accepted at both hospitals and chose Brown University in Providence Rhode Island. At 24 weeks Jessica moved into the Ronald McDonald house and prepared for the surgery, At the U/s the day before, it was determined that Nathaniel was no longer a candidate for the surgery because his lung to head ration had gone up to 1.0 (it was 0.2 at the 18 week appointment) Nathaniel was born at 39 weeks at Magee Women’s Hospital and was immediately transferred to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh where he went directly on ECMO. Nathaniel had left sided CDH with his stomach, liver, spleen, and most of is intestines in his chest. Nathaniel was on ECMO for 23 days and was never able to have his repair surgery. Nathaniel passed away at 24 days old at Children’s Hospital. Nathaniel’s big brother Dominick is 7 now, and Nathaniel has a little sister Lydia whom is 3. Jessica and Chris have been married since 2005 and live north of Pittsburgh. Jessica is a research technician in a Critical Care Medicine lab at Children’s Hospital and Chris is an electrician for the steel mill Allegheny Ludlum.