$6,495.00

Makaylen Jaymes Plotz was born on Valentine's Day, 2022 and died a little over 18 months later. Our beautiful little girl was a healthy and thriving toddler. We put her to bed with hugs and kisses like every other night of her life and we had zero warning of what was to come. The morning of Friday, September 8th, 2023 Makaylen did not wake up. After 8 long weeks we received the extensive autopsy results that told us what we already knew… nothing was wrong with Makaylen, our daughter was completely healthy, there was no accident or injury, and her cause of death was labeled undetermined. This puts her into the category of Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC.)

According to the SUDC Foundation: Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) is a category of death in children between the ages of 1 and 18 years that remains unexplained after a thorough investigation, including an autopsy. Most often, a seemingly healthy child goes to sleep and never wakes up. SUDC is not new but is believed to be rare, with estimates being about one in every 100,000 children. Every year, at least 400 children are lost to undetermined causes in the U.S. alone. It is most common in young children and is the fifth leading category of death among children ages 1 to 4 years. 

Our family is dedicated to finding ways we can honor Makaylen and raise awareness of SUDC. We have donated her DNA to the SUDC Registry and Research Collaborative (SUDC-RRC) at NYU Langone Health. Please consider making a monetary donation here to support the research, any amount donated is so appreciated by our family and the many SUDC Families that have enrolled their beloved child into the SUDC-RRC. We are all just grieving families looking to get answers that may someday prevent and eliminate Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood. 

The SUDC Foundation has also been a vital area of support: providing resources from the very beginning, answering the most difficult questions, directing us to the DNA bank and research, and hosting the SUDC Community Retreat which linked us to a network of other families. For more information on the SUDC Foundation, visit SUDC.org

Please help us raise awareness of Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood and donate to SUDC Research in loving memory of our forever Valentine, Makaylen Jaymes Plotz 2.14.2022 - 9.8.2023