HELP HEAL JACK JUMPER'S HEART
Jack Michael Jumper was born on November 27th, 2009 to Jon and Michelle Jumper of Miami County, Indiana.
At 5 months gestation, during a routine OB visit, an ultrasound detected that Jack had some severe congenital heart defects. His pulmonary artery is underdeveloped and is missing a valve. Jack also has transposition of the great vessels. Meaning the aorta and the pulmonary artery are attached to the top of the heart on the WRONG Sides. Accompanying this defect are two large holes between the upper chambers of his heart.
All of these defects must be corrected in the first year of life or Jack will not survive.
As of now, Jack has had two major open heart surgeries. The first was on Dec 1st, 2009 to place a shunt on his pulmonary artery to bypass the bad section. This one was not sufficient and had to be replaced by a larger one on Dec 21st, 2009. Jack's next large surgery will be at about 10 to 12 months of life. That one will be to reconstruct the great arteries.
On top of all this, Jack has paralyzed vocal cords from the ventilator. This means he cannot be fed from a bottle. The vocal cords control reflux, issues all babies have, but throat irritation from acid or formula can be life threatening to Jack if aspirated. This will heal over time, but for now, he will be receiving a G tube into his belly for feedings. But, in order to have the G tube he needs to weight at least 6 lbs, 10 oz. (As of the writing of this he weights 6 lbs, 1 oz.) It’s tough to gain weight when he’s only on an IV for nourishment. When he does gain the weight he will need the G tube for several months. The goal is to get Jack to gain even more weight so he can be big and strong for his major upcoming surgery.
All the while Jack has to fight infections and little problems along the way. When there is an infection, while taking antibiotics, he cannot be fed. So this doesn’t help with the weight gain. The doctors are going to install a Trach Tube to give his poor little vocal cords a rest and a chance to start healing. All these little “hiccups” keep him from progressing too fast which means a longer stay in the hospital. As a matter of fact there has been no indication from the doctors as to when Jack might get to come home. They say it is up to him.
As you can well imagine, Jack's insurance coverage is fast reaching the maximum lifetime pay out of $1,000,000 in just 7 weeks. Jack is required to have a medicine that costs $1,000 a month that insurance will not cover. “Little things” like that add up pretty fast.
How can you help out? Well, there are lots of ways. There are a few different fund raisers going on in the local area (if you are close to Northern Indiana) such as cook book sales and the Sheriff of Miami County, Ken Roland, has come up with a great idea! He has offered to have a fund raising breakfast in the new jail, where people would actually be served breakfast in the new cell blocks (don’t worry; the jail is not quite ready for the prisoners to move in yet). The meal was a huge success. You can click
here to see pictures of the events.
Or if you’d like to make a donation, you can send donations to:
Miami County Sheriff's Office/Jack Jumper
1104 W 200N Peru, IN 46970
Jack also has his own bank account for donations. Checks can be made out to Jack Jumper and mailed to: Beacon Credit Union/Jack Jumper
820 North Broadway
Peru, IN 46970.
The Jumpers have a family history of serving and defending our community. Jack’s Daddy, Aunt Linda and Uncle Greg are all Miami County Sheriff Deputies and Jack’s Mommy is a State Trooper. Police work goes back several generations.
So, dig deep or come out for breakfast or just pass this website and story on to everyone in your address book. Every little bit helps.
