Miracle baby Riley, 9 months, survived a rare condition few infants in B.C. ever face. Now a flooded, mouldy home could take away the safe life his parents fought so hard to give him.

When Courtney and Kyle first held their son, they already knew the odds were stacked against him. Riley was born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, or CDH — a rare condition in which a hole in the diaphragm allows organs to shift into the chest before birth, leaving little room for the lungs and heart to grow.

In British Columbia, cases like his are uncommon. For many families, the first hours after birth are a race against time. Riley was placed on life support almost immediately. Only when doctors judged him stable enough did surgeons operate to gently return his organs to the abdomen and close the defect.

What followed was six months in hospital — long nights, sudden alarms, and stretches when Courtney and Kyle did not know if their baby would come home.

‘There were days I was afraid to leave his bedside,’ Courtney says. ‘I had already decided during pregnancy that I would not give up on him. After he was born, that promise became every hour of every day.’

Riley pulled through. But CDH does not end at discharge. His lungs still need help. He relies on a BiPAP machine for about 16 hours a day to support his breathing, and he is fed through a tube in his stomach. He has had four surgeries and countless scans, X-rays and procedures. He has been readmitted more than once when breathing became too hard.

Kyle describes the learning curve as another kind of labour. ‘You don’t leave the hospital as ordinary parents. You leave as his nurses, his advocates, his whole world. Courtney learned care that took months. She is with him every single day.’

Then, just as they were trying to build a quiet life at home, their toilet tank burst. Water poured through the house. Riley, Courtney and Kyle spent several days in a hotel — a huge undertaking for a medically fragile baby who needs machines, tubes and a strict routine.

When they returned, the damage was worse than they feared. Mould had begun to spread. Furniture and toys were ruined. For most families, that is a costly inconvenience. For Riley, a mouldy house is a medical emergency.

‘A house that isn’t safe could kill him,’ Courtney says. ‘We are not asking for luxury. We are asking for air he can breathe and a room that will not send him back to hospital.’

They are back in a hotel now, but they cannot stay there long. They are trying to raise the money to move into a clean, livable home and replace what the flood destroyed.

Riley is still only nine months old. He has already survived more than most people will in a lifetime. His parents say they do not need pity — they need a chance to keep the home they fought so hard to bring him back to.

‘He is our miracle,’ Kyle says. ‘All we want now is a door we can close at night, knowing he is safe.’

Source: GoFundMe