Baby born to Blackfoot couple at 23 weeks has a long road ahead of him

BLACKFOOT — A local baby has spent his first seven months of life in a hospital after being born at 23 weeks.

Braylen Anthony, 26, was at her home in Blackfoot on her lunch break when she decided to take her blood pressure. She was five months pregnant at the time and said she felt fine but wanted to check what it was “for fun.”

“It ended up being really high … in the stroke/seizure range,” Braylen said about her blood pressure, which read 206/139. “I called my doctor, and they sent me over to Grove Creek Medical Center in Blackfoot to be checked. I had no symptoms. It was just a normal day for me.”

Braylen stayed overnight at Grove Creek Medical Center before being flown by University of Utah AirMed to Utah Valley Hospital in Provo on June 20, 2025. She was monitored there over the weekend, but on Monday, while getting an ultrasound, her blood pressure spiked again.

“They took me back up (to my room), gave me some medicine, and we had a talk with the doctor. He said the medicine wasn’t working and they had one more emergency med they could give me before I was maxed out for 24 hours,” she explained. “He said to prepare within the next couple days to have the baby.”

He left the room, and another doctor came in to talk to Braylen and her fiancé, Easton Jensen.

“All the sudden, (the other doctor) came back in and said ‘Your blood pressure spiked again during that conversation. Here’s a consent form. Here’s a gown. Get ready because we’re taking you for an emergency C-section,” Braylen remembers being told. “It was no longer safe for me, even though I didn’t have any symptoms … and the baby was completely fine.”

Zander Jensen was born on June 23, 2025, weighing 354 grams, which is a little over 12 ounces. Zander stayed in the NICU at Utah Valley Hospital for 27 days. But early in the morning on July 19, Zander’s parents got a call saying that their baby was sick and possibly had a perforation in his intestine.

“We had the choice to either hold him until he passed away or life flight him to have surgery — which the odds were not great — but we chose to life flight him,” Braylen said.

Zander was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi and had surgery. Braylen said her son ended up not having a perforation in his intestine but a perforation in his stomach lining, which was able to be repaired. He had three surgeries that week and ended up having an ileostomy, which is a surgical procedure that disconnects the end of the small intestine and connects it to a new opening in the abdomen.

It was surgery after surgery for Zander. At three months old, he contracted necrotizing enterocolitis. This is a condition that causes intestinal tissue to die and can also cause a hole in the intestine. He had four more emergency surgeries to remove sick parts of his intestine.

Then, in November, he underwent surgery to have his intestine taken back down and put back together. However, the surgery didn’t take, and fluid was leaking into his abdomen. He ended up with another ileostomy.

“That is a total of 11 surgeries he had,” Braylen mentioned.

Zander was transferred to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake earlier this month. On January 23, Zander had a tracheostomy, an opening surgically created through the neck into the trachea to allow air to reach the lungs. Braylen said the surgery went well.

“It’s a good step for his development so that he can play and move around and not be so bed-bound,” Braylen said about Zander receiving a trach. “It’ll aid him to be able to come home a lot sooner.”

Braylen said her son now weighs a little over 11 pounds and is 19.5 inches long.

“We have an approximate time that they said they would like to see him come home (which is) when he’s nine months old. They think roughly April,” Braylen said. “It could be sooner, but it also, as we’ve learned, could be a lot later.”

While Zander has been in the hospital, both Braylen and Easton have continued working. They work Monday through Thursday, then leave for Utah Thursday evenings and return to Blackfoot on Sundays.

A GoFundMe has been started for the family to help with medical expenses and supplies, transportation costs, and to make up for lost wages for when emergencies arise, and Braylen and Easton need to be in Utah and can’t be at work. To donate, click here.

“We’re just trying to survive. It’s really tough,” Braylen said. “But we try really hard to be brave about it. We have a really good family support system, and our work support system is great too.”

Updates on Zander will be shared on Braylen’s Facebook. To follow along, click here.

“He’s a great little guy. We love him so much,” she said. “He’s silly and so strong — mentally and physically.”