MOUNT CARMEL, Pa. — When Jennifer Garzelli gave birth to her daughter Aspen Faith on November 17, she was under the impression she was having a healthy baby. But sadly, that was not the case.
"When she was born, they laid her on my chest, and I just sort of felt like something was wrong with the way she was crying. I kept asking if she was OK," Garzelli said.
Aspen Faith was flown to Geisinger Medical Center near Danville, where Jennifer and her husband Richard were told the baby has a complex heart condition.
"They're saying what she's dealing with, there's no comparison studies to work with," Richard Ortlip said.
Aspen Faith was then flown to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
"They said that we could either take her off of the ventilator and let her go peacefully, or she had a 50 percent chance of surviving the first set of three open-heart surgeries. This was on day two of her life," Garzelli said.
That first surgery was successful, but it's been an uphill battle for this family from Mount Carmel. Both Richard and Jennifer were recently diagnosed with COVID-19 and have not been able to visit their 22-day-old baby.
"My main issue out of all of it was I was just scared that she wouldn't remember my voice," Garzelli said.
In addition to that, the family has not been able to open their shipping business, New Hope Merchants. While the family was in Philadelphia, their store was broken into. But despite all of this, the family is trying to stay positive and keep their faith.
"If we can keep passing all these obstacles in our way, there's nothing that's going to slow us down from helping the community get their packages out to the ones they love," Ortlip said.
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