Atlanta woman, good Samaritan step up to help mom in need of specific baby formula

ATLANTA - Parents around the country are scrambling to get formula during a nationwide shortage. An Atlanta woman has stepped in to deliver some much-needed nourishment to a mom whose baby needs a very specific type of formula to stay alive.

Aileen Hernandez desperately needed formula for her baby. Her friend Laverne Small knew about a drive going on at this coffee shop. She told the owner. The owner put out the word. The next thing you know, that mom gets the potentially life-saving formula for her baby.

Baby Abigail Hernandez was born with only one chamber pumping her little hear.

 "She has to have surgery soon," her mother says. "It’s called tricuspid atricia."

Abigail is less than 2 months-old. She can't drink her mother, Aileen's milk, and she has problems processing most formula

"She was not passing gas, and she was not stooling."

Doctors worried they would have to resort to artificial methods.

"They were afraid she might need to use a tube for me to feed her."

Aileen found out Abigail can digest a very specific type of formula.

"She can only take similac sensitive formula."

The problem right now is the nation is suffering through an acute shortage of baby formula.

"We haven’t been able to find it here at all. The shortage of the formula is not a joke."

She, like so many other parents, is scrambling to feed her daughter.

HJernandez lives in Tennessee, but her friend Laverne heard about a formula drive at Gal's Coffee Shop in Buckhead.

"They couldn’t find the formula within 30-miles of where they live," Small said. "When she told me I was like this not good. I mentioned to her about the formula Abigail needed, and she said okay—I’ll put it out there."

Laverne told the owner about her friend's situation. An anonymous good Samaritan donated formula.

"Within a day or two somebody donated the exact formula she needed," Small said. "I got it and FedEx it to her."

Hernandez os grateful for her friend's help and the generosity of the good Samaritan.

 "To have her doing that –she’s a blessing to us," she said. ""They donated 12 boxes. They don’t know the difference they’re making in our lives right now."

The supply is good for two weeks. Hernandez says she hopes to find more by then. She has to. Her baby’s life depends on it.