EAST LIVERPOOL - Julian Alexander Nation has been alive just a week or so, but already he has touched many lives.

Julian was born four weeks premature Nov. 19 at Akron City Hospital with a rare condition. Julian is one of the few babies born with necrotic, or dead, bowel and small intestine.

His mother and father, Halay and Jon Nation, as well as his grandmother Joanie Hamilton were hoping for a Thanksgiving miracle. "Please pray the doctors find viable organs to sustain his life," Hamilton said Wednesday.

Julian's family spent Thanksgiving day at the hospital hoping that at least one third of usable bowel or small intestine could be found in order to perform another surgery.

Unfortunately, doctors were unable to find anything usable. Jon Nation said Julian will be coming home to East Liverpool today. "There is nothing that (the doctors) can do for him," Hamilton said.

Nation said Hospice will be available for Julian. The family plans on having Julian baptized at the House of Prayer Church Sunday. Family and friends are encouraged to visit Julian to meet him and watch him get baptized. "We can just love him and cherish him for the time he does have," Hamilton and Nation said.

East Liverpool resident Anna Hess said reading about Julian's situation was "like reading a chapter of my own life." Hess' son Trenton was born Nov. 20, 2008 in Akron General Hospital with a birth defect called gastroschisis. This defect occurs when the umbilical cord is not inserted correctly during formation, and intestines and other organs are herniated outside of the fetus in the amniotic sac. Trenton, who was also four weeks premature, was also diagnosed with a condition called hydronephrosis of the kidneys by Dr. Stepanian, a local obstetric gynecologist.

Trenton was fully recovered on Thanksgiving Day, but not without "countless scares and worries," Hess said. "I just want to let this family know that we have been through the same struggles ... (reading about Julian) brought me back to those horrible feelings of despair and how much we needed prayers and a strong shoulder to lean on. I hope they can find some sort of comfort in knowing this."

Hess also encouraged the Nation family to keep the faith.

"Julian's family will be in my thoughts and prayers, as well as many others. Julian and his mother have a very special place in my heart. My family and I will be thinking of them."

kschwendeman@reviewonline.com