Anabelle’s Story

Farewell bubbles rained on Anabelle Douyon and her family as they headed down Franciscan Children’s hallways for the last time. Her care team took deep breaths as they prepared to say goodbye to a patient that had impacted so many of their lives.

Fifteen-month-old Anabelle was all smiles dressed alongside her twin sister, Anaelle, in matching pink coats. Staff took turns hoisting Anabelle up in the air and showering her with affection during their farewells.

Anabelle came to Franciscan Children’s Inpatient Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program in March 2018, when she was just shy of three months old. It didn’t take long for staff to fall in love with her spunky attitude and cheerful smiles.

She was born prematurely at 33 weeks alongside her twin sister. Following their birth, the twins spent 24 hours in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for breathing support, before being discharged back to the family’s home in Burlington, Mass.

Finally together with their daughters, parents Silfilia and Junior Douyon, were eager to welcome their adorable twins into the family.

“We couldn’t wait for our beautiful twins to come back home. We wanted to be together as a family,” said Junior.

“We couldn’t wait for our beautiful twins to come back home. We wanted to be together as a family.”

However, their hopes of being home together changed when they noticed Anabelle was having difficulty breathing. In need of continued care, she was admitted to a local Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for respiratory distress and was placed on ventilator support to help her breathing.

After receiving an ear, nose, and throat consult, her providers discovered malformations in Anabelle’s airway and noticed she was also having trouble swallowing. Soon after, Anabelle had a tracheostomy tube placed along with a feeding tube.

One month later, Anabelle was admitted to Franciscan Children’s. She was on a ventilator full time and was receiving feeds though her g-tube. Her care team worked around the clock to get Anabelle’s breathing back on track and aimed to slowly wean her off of the ventilator.

Each week, little by little, her care team addressed all of her needs. By the end of her first month at Franciscan, she was taken off the ventilator and she started breathing on her own. As her lungs grew stronger, Anabelle underwent a successful corrective procedure for her airway malformations.

Her occupational therapist, Jaclyn Cinelli, worked closely with Anabelle, helping her improve her cognitive, physical, and sensory skills. She was by her side for all her milestones.

“I’ve loved being a part of her life and watching her grow,” said Jaclyn. “She is such a special little girl full of personality, dance moves, and smiles. She’s very popular around here.”

Anabelle also worked closely with speech therapist, Jenna DelSordo, focusing on expanding her language, feeding, and movement skills. Jenna fell in love with Anabelle’s infectious smile and admired her quick learning abilities.

“Anabelle is an incredibly smart little girl and picks up new communication and feeding skills daily,” said Jenna. “She is an absolute joy and adores people and social interactions. Anabelle has truly flourished developmentally during her time here and bonded with so many staff members.”

Jenna taught Anabelle around 15 different signs so she was able to begin expressing herself. Jenna practiced with Anabelle continuously, teaching her signs to show love, play, and give kisses.

“The first time Anabelle signed ‘more’ and blew a kiss in response to me saying ‘I love you,’ was extremely exciting and rewarding,” said Jenna describing Anabelle’s progress. “She has progressed so quickly from imitating simple sounds to responding to verbal directions, and then signing many different words.”

“Anabelle has truly flourished developmentally during her time here and bonded with so many staff members.”

Nurse Practitioner Stephanie Hopkins served as Anabelle’s primary provider during her time at Franciscan Children’s. She has been following Anabelle during each step of her medical journey.

“When Anabelle arrived, she was completely g-tube dependent and not taking anything by mouth. We worked on feeding consistently throughout her stay and she is now eating entirely by mouth and no longer requires g-tube feeds.”

Before she left Franciscan Children’s, Anabelle was starting to sit up and could pull to stand all by herself. Stephanie believes she’ll be crawling and walking in no time, and be able to keep up with her twin sister.

Anabelle and Anaelle have truly become best friends, although Anabelle can put up quite a fight when she doesn’t want to share her toys.

“The girls love playing together, but Anabelle hates sharing her toys,” said Junior.

“I was so happy when they were able to take her home. I loved caring for her, but for me the best part of her stay here was watching her leave the unit with her mom, dad, sister and grandmother,” said Stephanie.

Anabelle still has her trach, but no longer needs any support from the vent. Her care team is hopeful that Anabelle will get her trach tube out sometime this summer. As for now, Silfilia and Junior are finally seeing their daughters’ grow, blossom, and meet developmental milestones together – at home.

“We love Franciscan Children’s so much,” said Junior. “The care team tried to help us is in every way possible. Even after Anabelle’s discharge, they let us know that they would always be there for us. They changed our lives forever and we are so grateful. We pray for them every Sunday at church.”