Be B-Mav’s Wingman!

Braden Maverick was born Feb. 11th with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia or CDH. He was diagnosed during our 20 week anatomy scan. The doctor discovered he had a hole in his diaphragm between his chest & abdomen, and his stomach, spleen, intestines & part of his liver were up where his lungs needed to grow. He had just 29% lung volume...obviously not enough to survive without significant intervention after birth.

Braden’s currently at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Pete, FL, being treated by Dr. David Kays & his team. Dr. Kays is a pediatric surgeon with a specialty in CDH, who’s dedicated his career to this condition. His average survival rate for babies with CDH is above 90%. The nationwide average is 45%. He also has the only CDH ICU in the world.

Braden was immediately intubated after birth and put on ECMO. ECMO is the highest form of life support...where a machine did the work for his heart and lungs. He had his repair surgery Feb. 18th to relocate his organs & put a patch in where his diaphragm was missing. April 5th, he had another surgery to help with reflux & place a g-tube, which will help him grow, until he’s only eating by mouth, around his first birthday.

Please help support B-Mav’s CDH journey by being his wingman! To follow his progress...find his Facebook page: @BraveBraden.