It’s appropriate that A’lijaih Woody’s middle name is Amiracle, because her family is hoping and praying for a miracle to save her life.
Turlock resident and A’laijah’s mother Priscilla Brazeal is desperate to hear some good news, whether it comes from her insurance company willing to pay for her daughter’s treatment, or a facility willing to take her daughter as a patient.
“We just need something positive to happen,” Brazeal said.
Brazeal is fighting to keep 7-month-old daughter A’laijah alive and it’s a fight she’s not ready to give up on.
A’laijah was born with hypo-plastic left heart syndrome. Essentially only half of her heart was able to develop. In her short life she has spent about five months in one hospital or another. She is currently at UC San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital, where she is given nitrogen and kept under sedation.
“I don’t really get to hold her because they want to keep her sedated,” Brazeal said. “But I rub her belly and comb her hair and I see her smile.”
A’laijah needs a heart transplant to live, but her antibody levels are too high to make a transplant feasible. Already UCSF, UCLA and Stanford have rejected her as a patient. Brazeal was pinning her hopes on Boston Children’s Hospital, but got word Thursday that the hospital also denied her request.
“They’ve said her antibodies are too high and that she would reject the transplant,” Brazeal said. “The next step is to find a facility that can give her an antibody treatment and give her a chance to fight.”
Besides the challenge of finding a facility that is willing and able to treat her daughter, Brazeal said they have the added difficulty of having an insurance company hesitant to pay for the treatment.
Time is also ticking for A’laijah. Brazeal said the hospital believes that all options have been exhausted and that it might be time for Brazeal to cease any life-saving measures for her daughter.
“I just can’t do that as her mother,” Brazeal said. “I have to keep trying to find her help. I have to believe that there is someone out there that can help us. I can’t give up on her.”
A Go Fund Me page has been started to help the family with the medical expenses. It can be found at www.gofundme.com/dczmv7jj.
