Gabriel’s Story

Site created on January 20, 2020

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.




Gabriel's Story...

We found out at 12 weeks pregnant that there was a possibility that our baby had Down Syndrome.  We were given a 10% chance that our baby would survive.  We sought a second opinion at U of M Hospital and have been attending weekly visits ever since.  Down Syndrome was confirmed 100% for our precious Gabriel.  He has AVSD (heart defect) and fought hard throughout the pregnancy.  He developed Hydrops (fluid) and we had to have a shunt inserted in his chest, as well as 2 Thoracentesis procedures to help draw the fluids out while Gabriel was still in utero.   We had scheduled a C-section for February 14....but Gabriel had other plans.  He graced us with his beautiful self on January 14, 2020.




Gabriel is still fighting.  As a result of the Hydrops, his lungs did not develop properly and he needs some help.  They put him on an Ecmo machine, which is oxygenating his blood and feeding it back through his precious little lungs.  He is also intubated. 




We will be updating you all here, so as to help alleviate some of the stress of the texts, calls, emails, Facebook messages, etc.  This has been extremely hard on us and we sincerely appreciate each and every one of you who has inquired, prayed, donated or just kept us in your thoughts.  Thank you for caring!

Newest Update

January 23, 2020

Journal entry by Olivia & Matt Tola —

A bit of a set back...Gabriel's left lung is not fully opened like they thought.  This is putting distress on his heart - he has pulmonary hypertension.  Because of this, they cannot do the trial today.  They are working up a plan and are hoping that they can do a trial again tomorrow.  Continued prayers are appreciated.  Thank you!    #GabrielStrong
Read More of the journal titled "January 23, 2020"
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