Family asking for prayers for 2-year-old daughter in need of a miracle

A Steinbach family is asking for prayers for their daughter after being in Children's Hospital for almost a month. 

Cari Thiessen, Hallie's mom has been by her side for almost a month as the two-year-old has faced complication after complication. 

"It's been just a series of unfortunate events. We initially got COVID in the middle of the month of November and of course, this was terrifying because Hallie has an underlying condition, Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease (EGID)," says Thiessen. 

Her husband Jon has been back and forth from the hospital as the couple also has a four-year-old daughter to take care of at home.

EGID basically makes Hallie's body act like it's allergic to food. This means she has a feeding tube that brings formula straight to her stomach. 

"She fared the whole contagious period of COVID fairly well. Basically she just a fever and a little bit of a cough. It wasn't until after that quarantine period ended that we really started to see the effects on her GI system," she says. 

Within a short time, Hallie's ostomy bag began to fill with a lot of fluid, including blood and she couldn't even keep the formula in her stomach, which previously she was able to. 

"We ended up in the ER and they basically said we think this is a form of post-COVID inflammatory syndrome, specific to her GI tract," says Thiessen.

The doctors didn't know if what was happening to Hallie's body would get better or worse, or stay the same. 

"In December she was finally supposed to get a G-tube which is a feeding tube into her stomach, which we've been waiting for all of this year."

Previous surgeries for this procedure were constantly postponed because of the pandemic. 

"Now we've been in the hospital for 24 days. We're not even close to starting to work on her feeds."

Hallie has faced a septic line infection from her pic line, as well as an anaphylactic reaction to a blood transfusion and very low blood pressure. Due to her pressure, they haven't been able to administer pain killers, making it all worse for this toddler. The antibiotics aren't working in her body right now either. 

"We're in this big cycle of, she can't really receive blood safely but at the same time she bleeds like crazy. She's in really rough shape right now," says Thiessen.

The Thiessen's are asking people to pray over them, over Hallie and their daughter at home who has been asking questions. 

"It feels like a huge step backwards from where we were prior to her surgery because now she doesn't tolerate anything. That would be a really big request, that she would tolerate her formula."

CHVN will be following along with the Thiessen family and giving updates when appropriate.