On June 8, 2024, Jacob and his family and friends will be participating in the 9th 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 temporary shunt placed in his brain to slow down a brain bleed that ultimately became permanent. He also had heart surgery to close the PDA in his heart, and in August 2014 he had 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, and continued days and nights of unknown spent between the NICU and then PICU at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, 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. 

We were blessed with an amazing Nursing Agency that would help us through this journey. The outcome was a blessing and Jacob has and continues to bring joy and happiness and love to his family and friends 

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

Jacob continued to have multiple 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. We are happy to say the surgery was a success and Jacob is well on his way to living a happy and healthy life.

Jacob continues weekly with speech and physical therapy sessions through two fantastic agencies - Reach For Speech and Ivy Rehab for Kids.  These therapies help to deal with the effects of prematurity and for his continued growth.  At the age of 18 months Jacob was diagnosed with Spastic Deplegic Cerebral Palsy.  This was a difficult diagnosis to take on as we knew it would be something he would live with all his life, but he has been making amazing progress and is now a 3rd grade student at Hopewell Elementary.  He is thriving with the support of his therapists and teachers, but honestly God knew what he was delivering when he sent him down to us.  Jacob has a heart so big and full of love, he feels hard and loves deep.  But he is strong and he will fight you when he is challenged.  He is extremely active, loves everything baseball including our hometown Pirates, but he also has a huge passion for basketball.  He can shoot baskets like a champ and the kid has a serious arm when pitching a baseball or throwing in the ball!  Its so awesome and fun to watch him!  We have learned and continue to learn to push each other through this process.  He also gives the absolute best HUG!   

It is hard to believe, Jacob is turning 10 this June and we look forward to being joined by family and friends, including his older brother Joshua (11) and sister Hailey (7).

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 nor continue to be successful on his daily fight! 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, he also gets routine Botox Injections and serial casting to help with his spasticity withiin his legs and feet. 

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 8, 2024 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.