Family of 3-year-old born premature gives back to local children's hospital

PHOENIX (FOX 10) — In this week's Community Cares, Asher, a little boy who started fighting for his life before he was even born, and his family are giving back for his third birthday.

Asher is a typical 3-year-old. He loves to play ball, and catching is his favorite.

"I was 23 weeks pregnant when my water broke and before that thought everything was going great and then at 23 weeks I was on hospital bed rest at Cardon's Banner Desert," said Breann Vogt, Asher's mom.

Asher was born at 29 weeks, over 10 weeks early. As a premature baby, his lungs didn't even develop, and as a result, he has lung disease. He spent 240 days in the NICU and 100 days in the PICU.

"He has a nurse at night so Jesse and I can sleep that monitors him, he is on continuous feeds so because of his prematurity a lot of kids struggle with eating and swallowing and breathing," said Breann.

Thanks to the great care at Banner, Asher was able to go home. His home adventure has been one of growth, so on his first birthday, the family started a tradition.

"We ended up raising 600 gifts thanks to the generous donations of our family and friends and strangers," said Breann.

Books and toys, all of which were donated to Cardon's Children Hospital. 600 more gifts were raised on Asher's second birthday, and this year they hope is to surpass that.

"It can be a traumatic experience, we just want to be there to pay it forward to them," said Breann.

Asher's family wants other families to feel the comfort and hope they felt and to have faith, just like Asher, their children will thrive as well.

"From everything that he has been through he has always been happy and so resilient, it's amazing how resilient preemies can be," says Breann.

The family is hoping to deliver the gifts to the hospital on July 15 or 16. They have about 50 gifts so far from the gift registry.

You can donate through their Amazon page and have the gift sent right to where it needs to go. Or call Cardon's mail like 480-412-5437 and let them know you have a donation.

All donations are tax-deductible.