Winter Garden couple needs community's help after daughter born with spina bifida

Jessica Vanscoy tries hard never to forget this saying: Sometimes, you just have to take a step back and realize just how lucky you are.

She’s certainly been tested.

Vanscoy, 30, had seven miscarriages before prematurely giving birth to a daughter in December. Once the worries of Sadie’s survival were over, Vanscoy and her partner, Justin Taboada, were told their daughter has a form of spina bifida and needed spine surgery to avoid being physically disabled for the rest of her life.

In March, 3-month-old Sadie spent four-and-one-half hours in surgery followed by four days in recovery in the special-care unit at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. She is at home with her parents in a modest manufactured home in Winter Garden. The family recently moved there, down the street from Vanscoy’s mother in the neighborhood where she grew up.

Times are hard now, Vanscoy admits. She isn’t working while Sadie recovers. Bills are piling up. Past-due notices arrive in the mailbox.

She and Taboada don’t like asking for help, but the fear of their electricity being turned off is forcing them to reconsider. They created an account on the GoFundMe website that allows people to make donations to others in need and have graciously accepted the few hundred dollars that have been given to them. That means another month with the power on.

Already, Sadie has grown several inches and is able to spend time on her tummy and roll over. She is finally out of newborn clothes.

“That little girl, she’s my miracle,” Vanscoy said. “I didn’t think she would live.”

SADIE’S ARRIVAL

Vanscoy lived through the mentally exhausting highs and lows of anticipation and grief over and over as she discovered she was pregnant and then lost the baby. One pregnancy was actually a molar pregnancy, in which a benign tumor develops in the uterus. With another pregnancy, she delivered a girl, Cherish Serenity, at 24 weeks — but it was too early, and the baby did not survive.

When Vanscoy developed placenta previa at 28 weeks with Sadie, she was put on bed rest and given weekly shots to keep her from going into labor. This meant she had to leave her quality-control position in the kitchen at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., at Universal Orlando Resort.

Sadie was born Dec. 15 with her spinal cord attached to the spinal column. This is known as a tethered cord and is common in people with spina bifida, according to the Spina Bifida Association. A normal spinal cord hangs loose in the canal, able to freely move up and down with growth, bending and stretching. A tethered cord does not move.

If the tethering band is left intact, the patient’s spine develops a curve as he or she grows.

The neurosurgeon said Sadie’s surgery was successful but will have to check her spine again when she is 1 to make sure it has healed correctly. 

“I look forward to her having a normal life now,” Vanscoy said.

THE FUTURE

Vanscoy hopes to return to the Bubba Gump kitchen in a few weeks, if she can coordinate her schedule with her mother and a neighbor, who will be watching Sadie.

Ultimately, she wants to go back to school to become an ultrasound technician, something she has dreamed of doing ever since she was pregnant with Sadie and saw her movements on the monitor during a sonogram.

But, for now, she is focused on her daughter’s healing and getting caught up on their bills. She said Medicaid has been there for much of the hospital expenses, but they received a $700 anesthesia bill last week.

The family is relying on monthly food stamps to supplement Taboada’s paycheck. Anyone who would like to help Vanscoy and Taboada can go to their GoFundMe page or send a donation to 1190 Meadow Finch Drive, Winter Garden, Florida 34787.

“I am the luckiest person in the world; I’ve got my baby girl and my rock,” Vanscoy said, patting Taboada’s knee just before he left for his job in the kitchen at Cooper’s Hawk, a restaurant on International Drive. Nearby, their rescue dog, Beauty, lies with one eye open, watching her family.

HOW TO HELP

Anyone who would like to help Vanscoy and Taboada can go to their GoFundMe page or send a donation to 1190 Meadow Finch Drive, Winter Garden, Florida 34787.

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Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].