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Cooper’s Story

Site created on April 4, 2023

Cooper Michael Zoltak was born on March 26th 2023 at 5:44pm at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. Initially at birth Cooper had some trouble breathing and was initially taken to the NICU and placed on a CPAP to help him with breathing.

The following day Cooper was taken off his oxygen CPAP and was being monitored. Soon after they discovered Cooper was having random drops in his heart rate and oxygen levels. This started a cycle where Cooper had to have a period of 72 hours of no alarms where these incidents happened before he could come home.

During this time these alarms were still occurring and it was pushing the time table back for when he could go home. A litany of tests were conducted and they discovered that Cooper had a minor brain hemmorage and enlarged ventricles in his brain but it did not appear to be a big concern.

On Monday, April 3rd 2023, the night before he was supposed to come home the hospital noticed a small lesion on his lower lip. They were concerned about an infection and conducted further tests including a lumbar puncture to test his cerebral spinal fluid.

On Tuesday April 4th, 2023, we received the news that Cooper has meningitis at 9 days old, and further tests need to be conducted to confirm which type it is. According to the hospital they believe it is a bacterial meningitis. They immediately started him on an anti-biotic that will be given by IV for the next 21 days.

As of this time due to the amount of people who care about Cooper it is easier for us to just update on here. We will be providing updates as often as we can along with pictures of his progress. We are just beginning our journey with this and appreciate the support and prayers from everyone.

Love,

Chad, Allie and Harper Zoltak

Newest Update

Journal entry by Allie Levra — Apr 8, 2023

After the longest 12 days of our lives Cooper got to come home last night. Chad and I were holding our breath all day until we got him into the car. We came home with a cardiac monitor and lots of outpatient follow up but we are elated to be together as a complete family. Big sister is obsessed and has already told us "bringing a new baby home is a lot of work to do" and she is so excited to help in any way she can. We feel so blessed to be where we are. Thank you again to everyone who has reached out and prayed for him. We can't thank you enough ❤️

Read More of the journal titled "April 8, 2023"

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