http://eagletimes.villagesoup.com/p/friends-family-rally-for-springfield-family/1271027
Friends, family rally for Springfield family Newborn has rare heart defect By Chris Garofolo | Nov 19, 2014 Photo by: John Ellis Amanda and John Ellis with their son Presley and newborn daughter Vayda Earthquake Ellis, who was born Oct. 29 with a congenital heart defect. BELLOWS FALLS — When Sue Hernandez experienced an illness in her immediate family 14 years ago, the First Baptist Church congregation came together to help raise funding for the costly medical treatments. So when her nephew John Ellis Jr., of Springfield, needed to solicit donations in an effort to battle his newborn daughter’s congenital heart defect, Hernandez knew right where to turn. “We’re doing it for JJ here, and anything is a big help,” she said during the evening of Nov. 14. “We feel we have a pretty good turnout so hopefully we can get a couple hundred bucks today, that would be great but anything is helpful at this point.” Last Friday, dozens of family friends and members of the church gathered in the First Baptist basement for a spaghetti supper to benefit the Ellis family. They were able to raise more than $800. The money will help the family pay for medical and travel expenses and will give them some breathing room when they make an upcoming trip to the Boston Children’s Hospital. “We have just been hoping for the best. We all believe she will make it through, we know she will,” John Ellis said. “It’s really good to have this support, all our family here and they all have been praying for us,” he continued. “I’ve been nice to everyone I’ve ever met and it’s finally starting to show that people care.” John’s wife Amanda gave birth Oct. 29 to Vayda Earthquake Ellis, who was four weeks early and had been in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. The family’s newest member received her middle name from New England’s favorite punk pirate Jonee Earthquake, who plays a mix of rockabilly, surf and garage rock in the Jonee Earthquake Band. John Ellis has played music for years with Jonee Earthquake, who dressed as a pirate at their wedding. Before Vayda’s birth, the pregnancy was ripe with complications. Amanda experienced a severe case of placenta previa where the baby’s placenta partially covers the opening in the mother’s cervix, causing bleeding before and during the delivery. “Up until we came home, I was at the hospital every single day,” Amanda Ellis told the Eagle Times two days after the First Baptist fundraiser. “It’s been really hard, but we keep pushing on.” Both mother and daughter have struggled with their health since late October. The family said Amanda had an amniotic fluid embolism following her C-section that placed her in the intensive care unit before she was recently discharged. “Since she’s been in the hospital, it’s like I’m a single parent to our five-year-old [son Presley]. It’s been difficult, I’ve been trying to work and I can’t get the overtime that I used to get,” John Ellis said. “[Vayda] has Scimitar syndrome, it’s named after a sword. They say it’s pretty rare and what they also say it’s like bad plumbing; she’s missing valves and she also has a hole in her heart between two chambers.” The family said Vayda suffered a lung collapse within 24 hours of her birth in addition to the congenital heart defect. John and Amanda continue to learn more everyday about their daughter’s medical diagnosis. “The hole in the heart may be able to heal itself, but if it doesn’t they have to do an operation on it,” John Ellis said. Before they can choose a course of treatment for Vayda, the family has to wait for additional cardiovascular scans to see if the hole decreases in size. Doctors are more worried about her lungs than with her heart, however. “We’re taking it day-by-day,” Amanda Ellis said. On the Web: • http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/help-the-ellis-family-/258606
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