A Florida woman with Boothbay ties is trying to help her childhood friends during a trying time. Kara Squillante began a GoFundMe account to help Lynnette (Adams) and James Mayotte with medical and living expenses created by their child’s premature birth.

Gabriel Edmund Mayotte was born 10 weeks premature on Oct. 26 at Maine Medical Center in Portland. Lynnette Adams Mayotte contracted preeclampsia during her preganancy. The rare disease places the mother’s and baby’s lives at risk.

Preeclampsia symptoms are high blood pressure and increased protein in the urine. The disease results in the placenta, an organ connecting the mother to the developing fetus, not functioning properly.

According to Lynnette Adams Mayotte, the only cure for the disease is an early delivery.

“In short, he came into the world early preventing the progression of organ failure that preeclampsia was causing me,” she said.

The premature birth has caused both an emotional and financial strain on the family. Baby Gabriel remains in the Portland hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. At birth, he was 14 inches long and weighed 2 pounds, 8 ounces.

Squillante is a longtime friend of the Mayottes. Her brother was a classmate of James Mayotte.

“I’ve known Jimmy since the third grade,” she said. “This is a family that would never ask the community for anything, but I knew they were in a position where they could use some help. Lynnette hasn’t been able to work and the family has two other children to support.”

She started the GoFundMe page two days after Gabriel’s birth.

GoFundMe is a social media crowd-funding platform. Since 2010, the San Diego-based company has raised over $1 billion for various life events ranging from celebrations to challenging circumstances, according to its website.

As of Nov. 30, 37 people had donated $1,970. The fund is located at www.gofundme.com/mayotte. A Facebook page is also updating Baby Gabriel’s progress.

The Mayottes are grateful for the outpouring of support received from the community. The donations and well-wishers have comforted the family during the baby’s intensive care unit stay.

Many messages are from friends and family from the Boothbay region. Others are from people the family has never met.

“To know so many people have us in their thoughts and prayers has been uplifting,” Lynnette Adams Mayotte said. “I can’t describe how difficult it is leaving the hospital without being able bring your baby.  There hasn’t been a day when there hasn’t been a card in the mailbox or or a GoFundMe email with words of support.”

Baby Gabriel is expected to remain in the neonatal intensive care unit until Jan. 4. His mother reports he is doing well, but needs assistance breathing.

On Nov. 10, he reached three pounds and gained another pound by Nov. 22.

“He has had some ups and downs,” she said. “But mainly, he just needs to grow and become stronger.”

Doctors advise to keep him in the unit until his expected birth date. “We are on the fourth week now. It’s been exhausting.”

According to his mother, Gabriel needs to reach several goals before leaving the hospital. A checklist hangs in his room without any of those goals being reached. “We’re hoping by next week to check off at least one,” Lynette Adams Mayotte said. “The list of accomplishments seem quite long at the moment, but the doctors assure us it will happen.” 

The Mayottes hope to move Gabriel from his Isolette to a crib this week. Doctors advised the family that premature babies make the biggest gains as they reached their expected due dates.

The Mayottes live in Buxton but expect to move back to the Boothbay region, according to Lynnette Adams Mayotte. Both sets of grandparents live in the Boothbay region. Gabriel’s maternal grandparents are Kelly and Chad Murray, and Robert Adams of Boothbay; his paternal grandparents are Kathleen and Paul Mayotte of Trevett.