Volunteer Melanie Hensley is our volunteer of the week. Melanie is a member of our Welcoming Committee and volunteers anywhere else we need help with. We appreciate her so much and are so happy she is a part of our team. Melanie is the mom to 4 beautiful girls.
Melanie Hensley is the mother of two CDH babies, both of whom grew their wings.
Evie Nanette was born 06/14/2007 with a left-sided CDH at the University of Utah hospital and transported to Primary Children’s Medical Center. The initial outlook was promising, but Evie’s oxygen levels started failing. Unfortunately Evie was not a candidate for ECMO because of a small brain hemorrhage. Melanie said goodbye to Evie, her first child, a short 14 hours after she was born on 06/15/2007.
Allyson Belle was born 02/27/2009 at 33 weeks with a left-sided CDH at the University of Utah hospital and transported to Primary Children’s Medical Center. Allyson did very well and had her diaphragm repaired 3 days after birth. While still in the NICU, she had to have a second repair. They finally got to take her home after 3 1/2 months. She was on a feeding tube and oxygen almost the entire time. In February 2010, Ally was back in the hospital for another repair. During surgery she had a pulmonary hypertensive crisis and spent a month in the PICU. In June 2010, Ally was discovered unconscious and not breathing in her crib. Her heart had stopped at some point and she suffered severe brain damage. She was taken off life support three days later on 06/11/2010.
Melanie is a stay at home mom of two girls, Gracie and Molly. She loves crafts, scrapbooking, sculpting, floral arranging, painting, singing, dancing, music and being a mom. Her husband Josh is our Research Director for CDH International. They reside in St. George, Utah.
