Letter to Ellen Degeneres

Hello Ellen

Although, I am not the one who is having my first child I have a story about a true angel.  My Brother and Sister-in-law were pregnant with a baby girl.  The family could not be happier. We found out early November that the baby girl, Remington, was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Even though this news could be devastating we were excited and could not wait to meet her.  We finally got to meet Remi on March 13, 2009.  The delivery could not have gone better.  She was beautiful and was our little angel right from the beginning.  However, we did not really know how much of an angel she actually was.  Remi was only home 3 days when Ben & Amy (Remi’s parents) realized something was wrong with her color. It was determined that she had jaundice and had to be hospitalized. Further testing indicated that she had a rare disease called Hirschsprung's. Surgery to correct this was on Thursday, March 26. They cut off the very lower part of her colon up to the healthy area and reattached. She came out of surgery and it was called a big success. However, it wasn't. Soon after, she began swelling and blood was pooling in her body, second surgery occurred the next day. It was determined that she got sepsis and DIC.  They cut off more of her colon and reattached again. She came out of surgery with a stoma and her swelling was so bad they could not close her incision. Remi was in the hospital for a long time, which means the rest of the family was right there waiting for her to get better.  However, Remi did not get better.  Remi turned into an Angel on April 6, 2009.  Now that Remi is our families’ guardian angel, her parents are using this experience to help others.  Ben and Amy have started a small fund in Remi’s name called “R” Angel.  They plan to use the money to take meals up to the hospital for families of children who are in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), and baskets of supplies they may need, such as shampoo/conditioner/soap/etc. We were so grateful for people bringing us these things when we were staying at the hospital, but we noticed that no one else seemed to have the amazing friends and family that we did and they didn't have the support that we had. So, we want to try and give them that support. We also want to get involved with the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Toledo and work with them to help families of children with Down syndrome as well. This is why I am coming to you, Ellen.  We would really appreciate your help in getting “R” Angel really started and helping out the families with sick children.  Please help us in any way you can.  For more information you can log onto Remi’s blog that we started while she was in the hospital.  RemingtonRemer.blogspot.com

Thank you,

The #1 Aunt,

Ashley Remer

PS…I already talked to Oprah and Dr. Phil and they are on board with this story, but I wanted you to be the one presenting our story.  (just kidding)