Hunter Bryer
March 26, 2023
Hunter Bryer was born May 2, 2022, weighing 6 lbs, 14 oz. He was a healthy baby, that is, until June 16, 2022 when his bilirubin levels came back elevated and his sugars came back at 17. Hunter was admitted to Tulsa, Oklahoma Children’s Hospital. On June 23, 2022, it was suspected that Hunter had a rare disease called Biliary Atresia. (Biliary atresia is a condition in newborn babies in which bile is blocked from moving from the liver to the small intestine. In children who have biliary atresia, bile can’t flow to the small intestine, and it builds up in the liver and damages it).
Hunter was sent to Oklahoma, City OK to be admitted under the care of a doctor that specialized in the disease. After numerous other tests and a biopsy of Hunter’s liver to confirm the diagnosis, Hunter underwent surgery to take a small part of his intestines and connect it to his liver to try and get bile to run through the liver. The hope was that the surgery would help his liver function correctly until he got older and could gain enough weight to undergo a liver transplant. The family began the roller coaster ride of testing, doctor appointments and hospital stays. During a brief time out of the hospital, the family went to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas to do the evolution to get Hunter on the transplant list.
October 26, 2022, Hunter gave them a huge scare when he stopped breathing and ended back in the hospital in Oklahoma City. His number were getting worse by the day and he started running fever. November 19th, 2022 they were life flighted back to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. On December 9th, 2022, Hunter was moved to PICU. He was really high on the transplant list, but not high enough. December 12th, Hunter’s doctor spoke with his mom and told her he needed a new liver now and they were going to list Hunter as B1 on the transplant list, which meant Hunter would get the next available liver. Hunter’s kidneys started to fail so he was put on dialysis, then a ventilator. December 13th, at 8:00 am, seven hours after they talked to the coordinator, Hunter went into surgery to get his perfect match liver. Hunter had a few complications and didn't get out of surgery until almost 11 pm. The next morning, he ended up bleeding into his stomach and had to go back into surgery.
January 4th, 2023, Hunter was back in surgery to do a wash out of his belly. Hunter’s body did not tolerate the surgery’s well. His mom had to sign do not resuscitate papers more than once for him. Eventually Hunter was diagnosed with a rare infection called "VRE" (Vancomycin-resistant enterococci) Hunter was maxed out on blood pressure medications and antibiotics. All of a sudden, he started getting really sick again. Hunter was not stable enough to do another wash out, but they needed to get the VRE out as much as possible.
March 15th, 2023, Hunter was schedule for surgery again. The risk was high but the best option they had. The family decided that if Hunter ended up not doing good with the surgery, they wanted him to at least get the chance to have his birthday and get a little cake, so on March 14th, 2023, Hunter celebrated his birthday and had his first taste of cupcake and sweets. The next day he went in again for surgery. He was in there for a few hours. He got back and the doctors said that there was so much scar tissue from having to open him up so much, they weren't able to do much while they were in there. Hunter did good for a little bit and then about an hour later he started coding. Hunter bounced back a little he seemed to be feeling better and started acting more like himself again, but his labs were not looking good. The infection was doing so much damage. Hunter was in full kidney failure and his liver was failing again. The doctors told his mom there was nothing else that could be done. Hunter passed away March 26th, 2023, at 9:09 am. In the days that followed, the family had to figure out how to transport their baby back to Oklahoma so they could have his funeral. This ended up being a terribly expense ordeal, in addition to the funeral cost they were facing and the bills they had inquired since his illness. We are raising family assistance funds to help this family in their time of need.
Savannah, Hunter’s mom, is a single (engaged) mom of two little girls, and is 19 weeks pregnant with her fourth baby.
No donation is too small. Thank you for your consideration.