WATCH: Tiffani Tucker reports on 14-month-old Jemmah John and her medical mystery.
A young family of five from Cleveland, Ohio is praying for an answer to the baffling mystery illness that is afflicting their youngest child, 14-month-old baby Jemmah.
Parents Kilah and Brandon John told CBS affiliate WOIO that only three weeks after Jemmah was born, she stopped breathing. It was discovered that the baby had two congenital heart defects.
Soon afterwards, Jemmah’s pediatrician noticed that her weight and height growth was stunted.
“We were sent to many specialists,” they wrote on Jemmah’s crowdfunding site. “We tried everything, and then finally had to have an NG (nasogastric) tube placed.”
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But that was just the beginning of Jemmah’s medical mystery.
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Further tests showed that when she ate, all the food was getting pulled into her lungs instead of her stomach. She is now fed through a permanent gastrostomy tube.
She has been diagnosed with 25 different illnesses but doctors have yet to pinpoint what is causing her to be sick.
Not even two years old, Jemmah has already had three surgeries, one sedated test and has two more surgeries and five sedated tests scheduled.
Every day, the little girl takes five medications while her parents and 12 medical care professionals remain perplexed by her condition.
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“That’s the hardest part – not knowing,” said Kilah. “We just want her to have a normal childhood. That’s what anyone wants for their kid.”
But through it all, her parents have been documenting Jemmah’s fighting spirit.
Jemmah is set to undergo genetic testing within the month, which doctors hope will help identify the underlying cause.
“I see a light at the end of the tunnel, but I think it’s going to be a little while yet,” said Kilah.
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