Tuesday, February 26, 2013

MEET OUR VOLUNTEERS - Josh Hensley

Josh HensleyJosh Hensley

Josh Hensley is the father of two CDH babies, both of whom grew their wings. 

Evie Nanette was born 06/14/2007 with a left-sided CDH at University of Utah hospital and transported to Primary Children's Medical Center.  The initial outlook was promising, but Evie's oxygen levels started failing.  Unfortunately Evie was not a candidate for ECMO because of a small brain hemmorhage.  We said goodbye to Evie, our first child, a short 14 hours after she was born on 06/15/2007.

Allyson Belle was born 02/27/2009 at 33 weeks with a left-sided CDH at University of Utah hospital and transported to Primary Children's Medical Center.  Allyson did very well and had her diaphragm repaired 3 days after birth.  While still in the NICU, she had to have a second repair.  We finally got to take her home after 3 1/2 months.  She was on a feeding tube and oxygen almost the entire time.  In February 2010 Ally was back in the hospital for another repair.  During surgery she had a pulmonary hypertensive crisis and spent a month in the PICU.  In June 2010 Ally was discovered unconscious and not breathing in her crib.  Her heart had stopped at some point and she suffered severe brain damage.  She was taken off life support three days later, 06/11/2010.

Josh is the CHERUBS Utah Representative as well as serving on several other committees.  Josh works in Law Enforcement and he and his wife Melanie have one other child, Gracie, and reside in Saratoga Springs, Utah.

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