The Waukesha baby who paved the way to save others by trying a medical advancement ended his fight, but his legacy lives on.
"It's the hardest thing in the world," said Amber Hudziak, mom.
Noah Hudziak was one of the first in our area to try a new lipid at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. It was a type of feeding tube filled with artificial nutrients and fat approved for adults, but not kids at the time. The lipid didn't save Noah's life, but it has saved others since he first tried it, and it helped him live longer than anyone expected.
Noah lived two months longer than doctors thought. Amber and Tim Hudziak said he was strong for them.
"He wasn't ready right away and he just kept pushing on for us," Tim said.
The Hudziak's had been living every day like it was Noah's last for months, but they still weren't prepared to say goodbye.
"Hugged him, did what we needed to do," Tim said.
The couple took their baby off his nutrients tube last week when Noah started to swell up.
"He had like the burst of energy, lifted his arms up and then he put them back down and then he whimpered and then he stopped breathing.....We tried. I tried. I told him to breathe, he wouldn't breathe," Amber said.
While the Hudziak's are hurting, they're clinging to Noah's legacy knowing their baby is saving lives even after he's gone. It's one reason they can manage to laugh.
"I'm gonna miss changing his diapers. Even though they stunk they were perfect," Amber said.
Noah's parents have big plans as they head to Mount Rushmore next week.
"Spread his ashes around there and then from there we'd go to Florida. Drive all the way down to Florida and spread his ashes in the ocean," Tim said.
"Just all the things that we wanted to do with him," Amber said.
There's a visitation and memorial for Noah Sunday in Waukesha from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. atCesarz, Charapata & Zinnecker Funeral Home.
