Warrior Wednesday: Evie Kemp

We’ll be sharing Warrior Wednesday posts every week to highlight our heroic FAST community members! Read the first story, shared by the Kemp family about their daughter Evie:

"On Aug 9th, 2022 we realized just how quick a child with Angelman syndrome could become critically ill. After waking up with a fever and vomiting Evie began having some respiratory distress, at first it was some minor wheezing and gurgling sounds. Having lung issues already we decided to use her airway clearance vest to help break it loose. In less than 10 minutes she had a tonic clonic seizure and despite rescue meds she went into respiratory distress. After rushing her to the closest hospital and watching her lay lifeless and her extremities turn grey, the team was able to successfully intubate her and prepare her for life flight to Cincinnati Children’s.

Our warrior princess fought RSV, RhinoVirus, Sepis, Septic Shock, Seizures, Aspiration Pneumonia, and Respiratory failure. She lived on a ventilator for 4 weeks, and defied death multiple times. At one point her heart had slowed and she wasn’t breathing despite the ventilator at 100% support. The team told me to climb in bed with her, I tried to make peace with God’s will and cried and kissed her as I whispered my goodbyes. I asked for a Chaplain to come pray over us. We didn’t expect her to make it through the night, turning off our phones all we could do was sit bedside and pray. The next day our girl showed us she was not giving up. She was fighting, she was weak, but not giving up. Family, friends, and strangers all over the world had prayer chains going. They kept us going, God kept us going. We surrendered fully and asked for our little girl to be saved. Exactly 6 weeks after being admitted and more “close calls” then I ever want to watch again, our girl got to go home.

Every single nurse, respiratory therapist, and doctor from her team who fought so hard to save her life remembered exactly why they do what they do. No words were needed, her beautiful big Angelman smile said it all!!! She is our warrior. She is our Angel, and we are so thankful and blessed she is still here with us. She is our miracle."