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Family Needs Help After Baby Born With Special Needs

Marisa Fox

A woman who works for St Vincent de Paul is trying to help a couple who just had a baby. The family doesn’t have a vehicle and that makes a difficult situation more challenging.

Marisa Fox got to know Taryn Darst and her partner Manuel Renard when they moved into St. Vinnies Veterans housing in west Eugene this summer. Darst had to have an emergency C-section about a week ago. Her daughter Adalighn is now in the Neo-natal unit at Riverbend.
Darst: “It has been really rough. When she had her first seizure, she was on my chest. After her first feeding and she turned purple and stopped breathing.”
The baby is doing better.
Darst: “She’s growing really strong. And, I mean, she has a marine for a father and a mom that works her butt off trying to do everything she can. So she’s definitely a fighter.”
But it’s been a challenge for the couple to get to and from the hospital. Especially for dad. He’s been working graveyard shift and taking the bus to the hospital everyday. They can’t afford to buy a car. Marisa Fox with St. Vinnies wants to help the couple get one.
Fox: “I wanted to start up a donation fund for the family so that they could get a car so that they wouldn’t be spending 3 hours a day in transit getting out to the NICU to see their baby.”
Fox says the couple has been doing everything right. Working, connecting with social service organizations.
Fox: “They are hooked up with a lot of the agencies around town, St Vincent de Paul and, unfortunately there’s only so far that that can go.”
The baby will likely be released soon from the hospital but they’ll still need to get her to and from doctors’ appointments. Adalighn will be a special needs child. There’s a fundraising effort underway through St. Vincent de Paul.

Donations to help baby Adalighn and her family can be made to St. Vincent de Paul, 2890 Chad Dr., Eugene, OR.

 

Rachael McDonald is KLCC’s host for All Things Considered on weekday afternoons. She also is the editor of the KLCC Extra, the daily digital newspaper. Rachael has a BA in English from the University of Oregon. She started out in public radio as a newsroom volunteer at KLCC in 2000.