ELLSWORTH – Having children can be challenging enough but imagine having two babies less than a year apart, both needing to stay in Neonatal Intensive Care Units after birth. Meet Mitch and Karissa Hanson and their two little girls, Lenora “Lenni” and Kaiza.

A benefit will be held for the Hanson family to help them with medical expenses from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11 at Ellsworth Country Club (W6920 Golf Course Lane, Ellsworth). Hosted by family friends Dr. Evie Christensen, Naddy Glasbrenner, Hillary Church, Jennifer Broze, Jessica Knutson and Tia DeYoung, the event will feature food, drinks, a silent auction, bake sale and more. Medical bills for the family are quickly mounting and before insurance, currently stand around $500,000.

“We do have insurance, but we will have to pay thousands out of pocket,” Karissa said.

This has been made more difficult because Karissa lost her job as nurse practitioner when she had to be hospitalized during her second pregnancy.

Karissa has lived in Ellsworth all her life; husband Mitch, who also has a 16-year-old daughter named Madison, grew up in Red Wing, Minn. Nine months ago their daughter Lenora “Lenni” was born on Nov. 27. She was born full-term, but had a lot swelling and bleeding on the brain, a condition called hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).

“We delivered her in Baldwin and she immediately had to be transferred up to the Cities because she wasn’t breathing on her own. Her blood pressure was really low,” Karissa said. “She was whisked away.”

Lenni had to be put on a CPAP machine and an IV inserted through her belly button. Karissa had to stay behind and have a dilation and curettage (D&C) surgery to remove her placenta, which hadn’t delivered.

“I had to go right into surgery and didn’t even get to see her,” Karissa lamented.

She was reunited with Lenni the next day at Children’s Hospital in the Cities, but she had lost a lot of blood due to a post partem hemorrhage. Because of the HIE, Lenni had go through something called cooling therapy for the first 72 hours of her life.

“We could not touch her head or feet,” Karissa said. “We could touch her legs, her fingers or her arms. Then after the 72 hours was up, she went through what they called the warming process.”

For about eight hours, Lenni’s body temperature was slowly increased.

“Basically, why they did it so slowly was to make sure she wasn’t having any seizures, which she didn’t, which is great,” Karissa said.

Because of the swelling and the bleeding, some children end up having seizures or cerebral palsy. Lennis was lucky and that didn’t happen. When Karissa could finally hold her daughter, she could scarcely wait.

“Oh, it was so emotional. I was crying,” she said. “Lenni was only there for eight days because she was a rockstar. She was mainly there for the cooling thing and to make sure she didn’t have seizures. She was hitting all her milestones. They had to make sure she could eat every single bottle on her own without the NG tube through the stomach.”

It was an emotional experience finally getting to bring Lenni home. RSV was running rampant at the time and Hanson worried they’d end up back in the hospital. All remained calm until she received a shocking surprise on Easter Sunday morning: She learned she was already three months pregnant with her second daughter.

Karissa described her pregnancy with Kaiza as “super smooth.” She wasn’t sick and felt fine, until July 14. She was feeding Lenni when she began feeling weird; it almost felt like her water broke. She sloughed it off and decided to take a shower. But when the symptoms didn’t let up, she went into the hospital to be safe.

“Being a nurse practitioner, I was like, ‘Do I really need to come in?’” Karissa said. “But I’m glad I did.”

Her water had indeed broken and she was transported from Western Wisconsin Health to Children’s in St. Paul where she spent the next seven weeks until Kaiza was born.

“They were concerned about infection,” Karissa said. “My placenta could have come off the uterine wall (which provides nourishment to the baby). I couldn’t go home.”

She lost her job as a nurse practitioner prior July 14 and missed a job interview due to her hospital stay. The stress that came from losing her job sent her into pre-term labor, she said. She suspects she lost her job due to the second pregnancy so quickly after her first, but instead received a reason never brought up at her recent annual review.

Until Aug. 28, her condition remained stable until she started bleeding and experienced abdominal tenderness.

“The doctor was concerned and felt like Kaiza was safer on the outside than she was on the inside,” Karissa said. “They performed a C-section due to concerns of a placental abruption. It was a good thing we did because the placenta was coming off the uterine wall.”

For the second time in less than year, Karissa’s baby was whisked away immediately after birth before she could hold her. Kaiza was born nine weeks early. She too had to be put on a CPAP machine and feeding tubes, nine months and one day after her sister Lenni.  

“This time around, it was a lot less scary, because with Lenni there were a lot more unknowns,” Karissa said. “We didn’t know if there would be seizures or developmental delays. Kaiza will be there just to grow.”

Mitch works overnights and Karissa is home caring for Lenni every night while baby Kaiza is at the hospital. They go there as much as they can, but they cannot bring Lenni due to strict visiting regulations.

“When I can find someone to watch Lenni for us, we go up there. It’s a long drive too,” Karissa said.

The Hansons have no idea when Kaiza will come home.

“She is there to basically eat and grow,” Karissa said. “She is fed through a tube. She’s not really showing any interest in wanting to feed through the bottle, so it’s basically a waiting game. Once she starts waking up and showing interest in being hungry; it could be three weeks from now or tomorrow Some babies don’t catch on until after their due date.”

Kaiza’s due date was Oct. 28, but she decided to make her entrance into the world nine weeks early.

“Because we were at the same hospital with Lenni and know the nurses are great, we have no worries in that aspect. But it’s more of a bonding thing; we want to get her home and bond with her, to not have to drive to the hospital. It’s tough, but we know that she’s in good hands.”