The father of baby Kaylee, the infant at the heart of a transplant controversy this spring, will hold a news conference Thursday to announce he and the girl's mother Crystal Vitelli have separated.
"According to Mr. (Jason) Wallace, they have separated due to discrepancies within the family," said a Wednesday news release from JP Public Relations, the firm that has handled media relations for the couple.
The news conference will "update the media on the family's current situation as well as to Baby Kaylee's medical status," it said.
Kaylee has Joubert syndrome, a brain condition that causes her to stop breathing when she falls asleep.
At one point this spring, Kaylee's parents thought their little girl would die. They wanted her heart to go to another infant, baby Lillian O'Connor.
However, Kaylee managed to breathe on her own.
She was discharged from Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children in mid-May, arriving in Bradford, about 70 kilometres north of Toronto, via a donated helicopter ride. But she has had to be returned to hospital several times since due to various medical troubles.
Towards the end, Wallace and Vitelli had a stormy relationship with the high-profile medical institution. The hospital had Wallace removed from one meeting, and the parents had demanded that Kaylee be transferred out of the hospital.
Over the course of the medical drama, it was learned that Wallace will be going on trial in November on assault and robbery charges. "Why I'm charged, I ain't got a clue," Wallace told reporters on April 22.
He admitted to some criminal behaviour in his past, but said he is now a changed individual who is "trying to do the right thing in my life."
