The Beginning

Evan's story as featured on www.prayersforevan.org:

When Evan was 21 weeks in the womb Evan's parents were informed he had kidney failure, causing low amniotic fluid levels, making it impossible for him to form lungs. They had three weeks to decide whether to terminate the pregnancy. They saw five High Risk OBs and all had the same prognosis. One simply stated, "don't even pray for a miracle." At the time Evan had begun kicking actively and his parents-to-be decided to celebrate their child's life while he was still present rather than morn the loss of their unborn child. If they only had him in the womb they would cherish the pregnancy and as long as their unborn child fought to live they would support him. They started to work with Eastern healers: a Qi Gong Practitioner, Acupuncturist and Herbalist. Most importantly they turned it over to the care of God, meditated, prayed and asked for prayer from others.

On August 31, 2009, at 32 gestational weeks, Evan was born via c-section as the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times. Weighing in at 3lbs 10oz, Evan was born with a malformed right lung and collapsed left lung. At the time he was on pressurized oxygen heading to a ventilator. His parents were told he wouldn't last 24 hours. The Drs explained there was nothing they could do and offered their condolences. That night, without any medical intervention, his collapsed lung healed itself. Three days later he was breathing room air on his own. To this day the Doctors can offer no explanation.

Evan was born with a VACTERL association which includes radial aplasia (his right arm is missing the radius bone) and a malformed urinary tract (he has a small, non-functioning bladder; a missing right kidney; a multi-cystic dysplastic left kidney that has failed; among other urological defects). In general, the right side of his body never formed properly and he has multiple anomalies; some requiring surgical intervention. The Genetics teams at two accredited hospitals attribute the above-mentioned to a spontaneous genetic mutation, “just a fluke”.

Evan spent the first 168 days of his life between two hospitals; enduring 10 surgeries and multiple complications. All but two weeks of his hospitalization was in an ICU.

On February 14th 2010 Evan was discharged from the hospital and able to come home for the first time.