Eat Ice Cream, Save a Baby

Baby Ezekiel Petersen was life-flighted to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City on Monday, January 31, 2011. He has RSV and a serious heart condition which requires surgery as soon as possible. His parents, Royal and Jenn Petersen, need help. The cost of their son’s medical care is astronomical.

Here is Baby Zeke’s story as told by his father, Royal:
“Our youngest child, Ezekiel (or “Zeke”, seven weeks old) got sick recently and began showing symptoms late Sunday night. Sunday afternoon he was fine, smiley and all, but Sunday night he was pretty ill. Monday morning Jenn was worried and decided to take him to the doctor. Zeke’s condition had deteriorated all morning long but became exponentially worse in the doctor’s office. Dr. Johnson advised Jenn to take an Ambulance to Primary Children’s hospital in SLC about an hour away. Dr. Johnson then got on the phone and began preparing Primary Children’s to receive Zeke. During this time Zeke’s breathing became very shallow and sporadic. Zeke turned white and his lips purple. This is when Dr. Johnson became panicked, he immediately took Zeke and put him on oxygen. He told Jenn Zeke wasn’t going to make it to Primary Children’s and that if they took the Ambulance that was just arriving to Utah Valley Hospital instead he would have a chance.(about 5 blocks up the road) They went to Utah Valley. Utah Valley is a good hospital but not equipped (with equipment or staff) to handle heart issues in children especially small infants. By an act of God the doctor/heart specialist at Utah Valley happened to be a Primary’s children’s infant heart specialist. (Through a series of events that is a story in itself the right doctor was there) Arriving at Utah Valley, Doctor Johnson updated the ER doctors of the situation and stayed while they tried to stabilize Zeke. They had to put him on a ventilator along with a number of other medications to get him stable. Once the immediate danger had passed they prepared Zeke to be life flighted from Utah Valley to Primary Children’s and also gave him an x-ray. Zeke’s heart was substantially enlarged and his lungs were full of fluid. Looking at the x-ray the heart specialist guessed a number of things (correctly) and put him on some meds to try and open his Ductus Arteriosus Zeke was then life flighted away. This was very difficult. We knew that Zeke was currently stable from the RSV but didn’t have an accurate assessment of his heart condition. We had a best case and a worst case scenario."
{You can read the rest of their story and as well as make a donation here.}



Royal and Jen are best friends of my sister Abby. She works for them at the Sub Zero ice cream shop in the Provo Town Center Mall. We understand that times are tough and not everyone is comfortable pledging money to someone they don't know, however we ask for you to go enjoy an ice cream in their honor at their buisness. Abby has set up an event on Facebook
and would love for you to stop by for the best ice cream ever!! This is such a challenging time for the Petersens. They are the sweetest family and could really use some help right now!!

If anything, PLEASE copy and paste this post on your blog! Every little bit helps!