On June 4, 2022, Jacob along with his family and friends will be participating in the seventh annual Walk for Children’s. We hope that you will either consider joining our team for this walk or offer a small donation in support of Jacob’s team.

Jacob's Story

Our son Jacob Sutton has had quite the journey since he entered our life on June 16, 2014. We were so excited to know we were going to have twin boys to join our growing household. However, at an ultrasound in May of 2014, it was discovered that the boys (Jacob and Aidan) were suffering from Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. We had to quickly plan for a surgery on Amy to attempt to save the boys. The surgery was successful however the risk of pre-term delivery was very high. On June 16, Aidan Jacob and Jacob Aidan were delivered at 24 1/2 weeks, each weighing less than two pounds. Aidan was with us for 10 days in the NICU before he went to join his older brother Michael as our two little angels in heaven. Jacob was in for quite a fight for his own life. He initially had to have a shunt placed in his head to slow down a brain bleed. He also had to have heart surgery to close the PDA in his heart, and in August 2014 he had to have a tracheostomy to help support his extremely narrow airway that was making it difficult for him to breathe.

After a very tough bout of pneumonia, Jacob was sent to the Children's Home of Pittsburgh, where we spent a month learning how to care for Jacob before we brought him home. There were many frustrating days and nights as we discovered how much medical equipment would be in our house and how much care he would take. But little did we know how much joy he would bring to our lives. 

On November 19, 2014 Jacob came home with us for the first time, five months after he was born!

Jacob had many surgeries after he came home, but the most important one of them all took place on April 14, 2016 when Jacob underwent a reconstruction of his airway. This 10 hour procedure was performed at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and the intent was to remove Jacob's trach, rebuild his airway, and allow him to breath like a healthy kid for the first time in his life. The surgery was a huge success and Jacob has been living a happy and healthy life.

Jacob continues to have weekly speech, occupational, and physical therapy sessions to deal with some of the effects of prematurity, one of his diagnosis was spastic deplegic cerebral palsy and we have seen many of the effects it Carrie’s with his daily activity. He pushes through and is such a strong boy - he loves playing baseball and basketball and riding his bike. One of the work in progress is trying to learn pedals so I’m the meantime we have had a wonderful neighbor that has a nonprofit bike business adjust his bike to non pedals and he uses it as a balance bike. It’s truly amazing watching him.  Jacob receives Botox injections and has serial casting on his legs/feet done one to two times each year to help with his spasticity in his legs/feet. While his weekly PT sessions are hard and strenuous on him they have helped to continue building his strength. He continues to make amazing progress. Jacob is finishing up 1st grade at Hopewell Elementary and truly loves being in the classroom and all of his teachers and friends  

It is hard to believe, but Jacob is turning eight this June and will once again be joined by many family and friends, including his older brother Joshua (9) and sister Hailey (5).

It goes without saying that our family is forever indebted to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. Without all of the specialists, doctors, and nurses, Jacob would never have been able to reach this point in his life. We are so happy to have a hospital of this magnitude right in our backyard and hope to support their efforts in any way we can to help every child that needs their services.

Jacob continues to make visits to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh for maintenance check ups and our family will always hold a place in our hearts for the staff who offered their generosity and support during such a trying time for us. It pains us to see any other child and their family go through any type of situation that brings them to the hospital, but we hope to bring awareness to this great cause in any way that we can. We hope to see you at our giant celebration for Jacob and all of the other children on June 4, 2022 so that you can get a close up look at all of the miracles that are performed each day by the great folks at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.