Help Baby Blake Griesel get better

Hi, my name is Blake and this is my story.

12 November 2018 was the day I was welcomed into this world and sadly it wasn’t the best welcoming. Mommy’s placenta ruptured causing me and my sister to be born at 27 weeks.

During mommy’s pregnancy she fell sick and this led to me having 12 litres of amniotic fluids in my side of the womb and my sister had very little. A week before our welcoming, the specialist had drained 2 litres of excess amniotic fluid and had given us steroid injections to help us grow because we were ready to meet our parents a lot earlier than anyone had expected.

The evening we were welcomed was tough one and daddy almost left the hospital without any of us as mommy almost bled out in theatre, so she had to stay there longer while we were taken to the NICU. After an hour the doctor had stabilised us and we had to be monitored. We stayed in the NICU for 60 days.

During our NICU stay my sister grew stronger than me and was doing very well. I wasn’t doing so well, I had to receive blood transfusions and my lungs weren’t the strongest so I had to be placed on CPAP machine to help me breathe, unfortunately this CPAP was fitted too tight and damaged my nose to the point where I’ll need surgery to fix it. Also, I had a grade two bleed on my brain but that luckily got better. During all this commotion, I was also receiving physio and steroid injections to make my lungs stronger.

As we were about ready to leave the NICU, an Ophthalmologist came to see us to check on our eye development. My sister’s eyes were fine but mine weren’t developing as they should have.

After we left the NICU we were asked to go see the Ophthalmologist for a follow up and found out that I would either need laser eye surgery or an injection to fix my eyes. I received the injection soon after and after a few follow up appointments I was told that the doctor was happy and that I have come back when I am 21 months. (18 months corrected)

All was good for me and my sister until we had to go for our injections and check our development. This visit happened when I turned 1 year old (9 months corrected) and that is when we were told that I might have Cerebral Palsy and was recommended to see the Paediatrician.

21 November 2019 I went to the Paediatrician and it was confirmed that sadly I do have a mild case of Cerebral Palsy and was recommended to go get an MRI scan to determine the severity. Unfortunately, I can’t get the MRI done as it costs between R9 500 to R15 000.

My mommy and daddy unfortunately can’t afford this along with the physio and occupational therapy to help me as they are dealing with money restrains that all my medical bills have placed on them.

Thank you for reading my story and I hope that you could help me in any way, whether it be in thought or donation I would greatly appreciate it.

Sending Smiles

Blake Griesel