Audrey Katz MacIvor has a long, hard hill to climb.
The 3-month-old infant, who arrived Tuesday night at Stanford Hospital by ambulance from U.C. Davis Medical Center, awaits a heart transplant.
Her little ticker is being artificially stimulated. Tubing reaches Audrey's heart by way of her fragile neck, pulls blood and oxygenates it, then returns it.
"They don't think it's going to heal on its own," Audrey's mother, Atasha MacIvor, said of the organ in question. "Her heart is weak."
"You always think this stuff only happens to somebody else," said the child's grandfather, Yuba City resident Doug MacIvor, who, like the rest of the family, is still adjusting to new and quickly changing circumstances of the baby's illness.
The exact nature of the illness has yet to be determined.
Less than three weeks ago, Audrey's parents took her to a pediatrician near their home in Redding and described a more benign complaint.
Yeast had been growing and showing itself inside the baby's mouth — a common condition usually resulting from antibiotic treatment in a breastfeeding mother.
Treatment for the condition, known as "thrush," however, didn't take. And two weeks later, the baby was back in the doctor's office.
"That's when she caught this labored breathing," Atasha MacIvor said. "It didn't look normal."
Baby Audrey was taken by ambulance to a hospital emergency room in Red Bluff, where the attending physician recognized the problem as resulting from a heart condition.
From there, the child was airlifted to U.C. Davis and transferred to Stanford a day later.
Among the more likely causes of her trouble is infant cardiomyopathy, a condition that affects 12 out of every one million children under a year old, according the Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation.
And the first hurdle for sufferers of this disease is a high one.
"Infants face a shortage of donor organs," reads a description from the foundation's website.
Parents of potential infant donors have likely never prepared to receive such a request.
"It's not something you want to wish for," said Doug MacIvor. "A child has to die to save another."
The wait for a heart could be days. Or it could be months.
"She doesn't have years," Atasha MacIvor makes clear.
She and her husband, Yuba City High School graduate and U.S. Marines veteran William MacIvor, are attempting to find inexpensive housing near the Stanford hospital in Palo Alto.
"We're trying to figure out so many things," Atasha MacIvor said.
Audrey's 2-year-old brother, Jedediah, she said, helps keep the family's spirits up while they wait.
Friends and family are planning a July 9 fundraising concert for the family at St. John's Episcopal Church in Marysville. A donation fund will be set up through a local bank in the coming days as well.
"She has tubes coming out of every part of her," said Doug MacIvor of his tiny granddaughter. "How long will it take until she can get a heart? No one knows."
FUNDRAISER:
WHAT: Concert to raise funds for the Audrey Katz MacIvor family (with musicians and singers from The Acting Company and Borgamaria Lyric Opera)
WHERE: St. John’s Episcopal Church, 800 D Street, Marysville
WHEN: 7 p.m. July 9
COST: $15 admission at the door only. Beer, wine and other refreshments will be for sale at the event
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