Chance to Help: Enlisted Soldier Faces Costly Treatments for Newborn Infant Son’s Rare Medical Condition

Our names are Jacob and Janique Camp. I am a Private First Class in the United States Army. I have served for four and a half years and gone on two deployments. In February we found out that my wife Janique was pregnant with our son Liam. It was definitely a surprise and unexpected but at the same time we were ecstatic. His due date was October 9, 2013. We also knew I had a deployment coming up leaving in April. This as you can imagine was a very stressful situation to begin with. Our first child was coming and I would be absent for pretty much the entire pregnancy. I left for deployment April 1, 2013. At 20 weeks into the pregnancy my wife went to get the first ultrasound pictures of Liam. It was at this appointment that we were notified that Liam had Gastroschesis. For those that are like me and had no idea what this is, I will explain it. 

Gastroschisis represents a congenital defect characterized by a defect in the anterior abdominal wall through which the abdominal contents freely protrude. Pretty much his intestines grew outside of his body. You can imagine how distraught we were to find out that there could be anything wrong with our baby boy. On a lighter note, we also found that this is quite common and that the procedure doesn’t have that much risk. Although it was heartening to find out this was common, it still was scary to know that my wife was having a high risk pregnancy and I was so far away.

My wife had to send two red cross messages before I was given leave to return. On September 1st, I was given return to duty station orders. It was great to be home! I couldn’t wait to start going to appointments and was 15 minutes early to my first one! We already knew that Liam was a fighter because he excelled at all the pre-birth tests with flying colors, doing even better than most normal babies. 

During the next few weeks we knew that Liam would be coming early. It is fairly common for a Gatroschisis baby to come early, so we weren’t caught totally unawares. September 17th came fast after I had gotten home. We thought that my wife was going to have to have a C-section, but she was able to have the birth naturally. Liam was born at 35 weeks old at 5lb even and 17in long. He was amazing! Came out with a full head of hair longer even than my own hair!

The procedure started well with the doctors putting all of the intestines into a silo and slowly feeding them into his body. After a few days his small intestines showed dark colors so the surgeon wanted to do an exploratory surgery the next day on September 20th. After surgery the doctor informed us that everything looked well and while she was inside, she was able to put all of his intestines in. She informed us that she would do a follow up exploratory surgery the following day to see how everything was holding up. It was after the surgery that we were given news that crushed us.

The majority of Liam’s small intestine had died during the night and the doctor had to cut out most of his small intestine, including the valve that controls food flow from the stomach. Because of his short bowel they also made a stoma that came out the side of his stomach. A stoma is a rectum they made because his body couldn’t process food through the small intestine into the large intestine. They were able to leave about 10cm of healthy bowel hooked up to blood support.

We were given grim news about his future. Their prognosis was that Liam would have to be on IV nutrition for a large part of his childhood and would also more than likely need a liver transplant because IV nutrition is so harsh on the liver. Another surgery was scheduled on October 23rd to see how the bowel that remained was doing and also to reconnect it back to the stomach. During this time, Liam was getting all of his nutrition though his IV. 

As you can imagine, no food in the belly made for a very hungry baby. The days dragged by up till the next surgery. We were spread thin with me still having to go into work and still having my wife at the hospital every morning. We only have one car and had to balance our life with Liam being in the hospital. October 23rd came and Liam went back to surgery. They found that his small intestines had grown 15cm! They gave him a broviac, which is a long term IV that goes into his chest. They also removed the stoma and reconnected all of his bowels. They were still pessimistic about his future because a normal baby has 65-80cm of healthy small intestines and he only has 25cm. He was closed back up and we were told it was time to play the waiting game. Liam started getting 1cc of milk per hour through a nasal tube and 5cc by bottle once a day. This is about a teaspoon. His bowels became swollen because of the short amount. This caused food to sit in the small intestines and not be passed though. Liam was throwing up about 5-8 times a day which was making his body rely heavily on IV nutrition.

By December the doctors were still not pleased with the progress Liam was making so they decided to do another surgery on December 10th. During this surgery he was given a nissen, which is a belt wrapped around the esophagus to reduce the amount of vomit he was having on a daily basis. He was also given a g-tube. A g-tube is a feeding tube that connects from his side into his stomach and small intestine. They expected Liam to be out of the hospital by a week after his surgery but are still waiting for him to recover.

While talking to a healthcare representative of the company that is handling this I was informed that it would cost me 1000 dollars for the installation and 80 dollars a day for his medicine. At first I thought she was mistaken because everyone knows that healthcare for the military and their family is completely covered. I called Tricare to inform them, and they told me there is a lapse in his coverage after he was enrolled. I was shocked and outraged because had Liam been born healthy, it wouldn’t have been a problem because the lapse in coverage wouldn’t have affected him. They would still cover 80% of the cost but we still had to pay 1000 dollars and 2400 dollars a month for Liam’s meds. This is more money than I make in a month. I am overwhelmed by this. No matter who I talked to, nothing could be done to help me out in this situation. So I did the only thing I knew and that was to tell my family to see if they had any ideas. Being from the military and growing up in a lower income family I have always been loath to accept any outside help for anything. But in this I know the only way I will be able to provide for my son like I should is to ask for help and have faith in my Lord.

Very Respectfully, the Camp Family.

Americans are the most caring, generous and giving people in the world. If you would like to help the Camp Family with your prayers and a financial donation, an account has been set up to receive donations in any amount. If checks are sent, 100% of the total will go to help Liam. You may also give by wire transfer.

Donation Account: For the Benefit (FOB) of Liam Camp
MVFCU #990000144570
Routing number# 325272335
Saving benefit account
1020 S. Bailey Street
Palmer, Alaska 99645
Wire transfers and checks.

Read more from this story HERE.