MIAMI, Florida — An infant and his family are nearly 700 miles from home Tuesday night, as they hope and wait for a five-organ transplant that could save his life.
Four-month-old Wyatt Patterson and his family are from Winder, GA, but recently moved to Miami Holtz Children's Hospital, as he awaits his procedure.
Doctors told Wyatt's parents that he would need five new organs to survive.
Wyatt was born with a rare birth defect called Gastroschisis, where the intestines form outside the abdomen.
Shortly after he was born, he went to the hospital for liver failure.
"He's going to need a whole new liver along with four other organs, the small intestine, large intestine, the pancreas, and the stomach. It's not often they have to do transplants like this, so that's why we are down here," Wyatt's Mom, Courtney Patterson, said.
Wyatt has only seen the inside of a hospital since he was born on Dec. 3, 2020 in Georgia.
Wyatt's family always plays music in his NICU room.
"It [music] has to be playing at all times, he just stares at it," Courtney said.
There's a lot of music and a lot of love in that room. His parents want it to feel like home.
"We haven't quite gotten it quite as decorated as we want, but we try to make it as 'homey' as we can," she said.
Wyatt's family doesn't know when he'll get the transplant, but they know he's at the top of the donation list.
"We have a lot of faith and a lot of hope. We've gotten this far," Courtney said.
Even after he gets his transplant, Wyatt will need to stay close to Miami for at least two years, so doctors can monitor him and make sure everything with the transplant continues to work.
He will also be on medication for the rest of his life.
The Patterson family created a GoFundMe to help pay for the cost of moving.