The Fairmont Area Knights of Columbus will sponsor a breakfast benefit Sunday for the Tom and Laura Spitzer family.

The event will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the KC Hall in Fairmont.

The Spitzers’ daughter Emmalyne, born earlier this year, passed away in October.

Emmalyne faced many complications before and after birth. She was diagnosed with Noonan Syndrome, cystic hygroma, fetal hydrops, congenital heart disease and chronic lung disease. She needed to go on life support, feeding support and have a tracheostomy tube. But the Spitzers feel strongly that faith played a roll in her survival, as she stayed with them longer than doctors expected.

Laura explained Emmalyne’s condition, which began just a few weeks into her life.

“When we found out we were expecting Emmalyne, at about 10 weeks in we went in for an ultrasound and they found a mass on her head,” she said. “It’s called a cystic hygroma, and typically children with cystic hygromas do not survive pregnancy, and there would be a probable chance we would be losing her soon.

“As time went on, she continued to grow and had a lot of different complications in utero. They found multiple heart defects, but she was quite a little miracle. At one point, they thought she might have spinal difficulties and other abnormalities. But all these complications did heal themselves and were not seen in further ultrasounds.”

However, more issues would soon arise.

“As time progressed, I developed polyhydramnios in January and she ended up with fetal hydrops, which has a 1 percent chance of survival,” Laura said. “I was admitted on Feb. 11, and I was monitored every day and we waited for her to pass, but she had a super strong heartbeat and just kept going.”

On March 3, Emmalyne made her appearance and it did not go as planned. She was born without a heartbeat and respiratory effort. She was able to be resuscitated and was placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which is one of the last efforts before death. Emmalyne was diagnosed with Noonan Syndrome.

“Eventually, she crashed and was not able to go back on ECMO,” Laura noted. “This was day 23 and I was going to hold Emmalyne for the first time, which were supposed to be her last possible breaths. Instead, she did an about-face and pulled through. Her doctor that day states that was only a mother’s love that can make that happen.”

Emmalyne went on to make a lasting impression on those around her.

“Her care team was in awe of how she was defying all the odds that were stacked against her,” Laura said. “Sadly, in the end, after her second open heart surgery, things did not go as we hoped. … We are so grateful and lucky for the time we had with her. She taught us and others more in these past eight months with her then many learn in a lifetime. And for that, we are honored.”

“We know she’s OK, and we miss her so very much,” she said. “For us, we had so much support from our community and so much prayer, if this doesn’t make you believe in miracles I don’t know what does. Faith was the only way we survived all of it and you could physically feel all the prayers.

“I truly believe that if we wouldn’t have received the prayers we wouldn’t have had as much time with Emmalyne as we did. We were pushed to terminate quite regularly but each life is a gift, no matter how short, no matter how fragile, so cherish each moment.”

As for the community support, it has inspired the family to try and help others.

“We’re working on starting an annual fundraiser for her to help families with the same things we went through,” Laura said. “It’s going to be called Emmalyne’s Angel Day, and our first day is going to be on March 7 of this coming year.”