The Rice Family

Scroll down to see updates as the Rice family progresses in their CDH Journey! (All updates are written and given by parents with consent)

Update 5/1/24 We are the Rice family from Amarillo, TX where we own and operate Avant Garde Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Academy with our goldendoodle Newaza. We are expecting our first baby in June 2024! We are so excited to become parents and so excited to meet our sweet Olivia! 

At 22 weeks she was diagnosed with CDH. Our doctors in Amarillo didn’t tell us much, they said she may not survive and we were given a piece of paper with no direction of what was going to happen. It was traumatic to say the least. Immediately, I started looking up everything I could possibly know. I joined a support group and found out about Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital. I contacted them about becoming a patient, set up all my appointments and we flew to Houston. 3 long days of appointments her CDH was confirmed severe left sided and they found some issues with her heart. We’ve been to Houston twice now and relocate to Houston in May 2024. Brooke will have to give up her job as an office manager for a physical therapy clinic and Justin will be running his gym remotely from Houston. We sadly have to leave our dog behind with friends. He was our first baby, but we couldn’t afford housing to bring him with us. As difficult as living 9 hours from home will be, we are so thankful to be able to give Olivia the best chance at life in Houston. We are forever grateful for the financial help that grants like the Eden Calhoun grant gives to families who have to drop everything and move away from home. This grant will help us pay for our housing, groceries and gas going to and from the hospital. 

Update 5/29/24

We had our baby shower the weekend before relocating to Houston. We have been trying to celebrate the pregnancy and our Olivia even with the CDH diagnosis. We have been in Houston for 3 weeks now. We are very home sick and miss our dog so much. We are grateful to have the opportunity to relocate and provide the best medical care for our sweet Olivia; we know not every family has this choice. Medically, Olivia’s heart is stable at the moment, our last echo showed there had been no changes! They will monitor her heart after birth. Her CDH seems to be staying the same, her left lung is very small and her right lung is smaller from being pushed so far to the right of her chest. We have our final growth scan the first week of June to give the team the final severity estimate before birth. We are staying positive and trusting the medical team at Children’s Memorial Hermann. We are preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best each day. We scheduled our induction for June 18th! So only a couple more weeks until we get to meet our sweet girl. 

Update 6/21/24

It’s with a very heavy heart that I write this update. Olivia was born 6/13/24 at 12:29pm. She ended up having bilateral CDH and her heart was just not strong enough. She passed away just 4 hours after birth. She had a full head of brown hair and beautiful blue eyes. She was absolutely perfect.

Isolated CDH is complex on its own and with her added CHD, her heart was not what her body needed. We elected to allow an autopsy to further the education for CDH babies who also have other congenital disorders. We hope she can help bring peace to families in the future who have to go through this extremely heartbreaking experience. 

We’re grateful we were able to give her the best chance at life by relocating to Houston. We wish so badly it would have turned out different, but we would do it all over again to see her. We’re forever thankful to the Eden Calhoun grant helping make this relocation possible. 

We at the ECCF are heartbroken over this news and are praying every day for the Rice family. Please lift them up in your prayers.