Jesse Marshall spent years being known around Whatcom County as the neighbor who grabbed a rifle and helped save two sheriff's deputies during a bloody 2022 shootout. Now the former Army combat veteran is facing a different kind of fight, one measured in incubators, breathing tubes, and hospital bills, as his newborn twin sons remain in a Portland neonatal intensive care unit nearly six weeks after they were born three months early.
Marshall's twin boys were born July 14 at just 28 weeks gestational age, according to KOIN, 12 weeks ahead of their October due date. Marshall told the station that his wife's water broke while the couple was on their way to a routine pregnancy checkup, sending them scrambling toward emergency care instead. The twins have remained hospitalized in Portland ever since, far from the family's home in Reedsport, a coastal Oregon community of roughly 4,300 people that sits about a four-hour drive from the city, according to information from the city of Reedsport.
A Family Displaced By Distance
The family's predicament is partly a matter of geography. Rural coastal Oregon has no Level 3 or Level 4 neonatal intensive care units, so families with the most fragile newborns are forced to relocate to urban hospitals for the duration of treatment, according to the same KOIN report. That has meant the Marshalls are juggling rent in Reedsport with the cost of staying near the twins in Portland, on top of travel, toddler care, medical bills, and other expenses piling up while the babies remain hospitalized.
Extremely premature infants born around 28 weeks typically need somewhere between 60 and 90 days in a NICU before they can regulate their own body temperature and feed without assistance, according to research published on PMC. That window lines up almost exactly with the twins' expected discharge date of October 2, which happens to be their original due date. As of the KOIN report, the twins were expected to have their breathing tubes and other breathing assistance removed by Friday, a milestone the family is hoping signals they are nearing the end of their hospital stay.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the Marshall family cover expenses, according to KOIN. The family says it needs double bassinets, double cribs, car seats, diapers, wipes and clothes for two infants at once, on top of the housing and travel costs of essentially maintaining two households at the same time. Nationally, NICU stays for premature infants regularly rack up hospital charges of several thousand dollars per day, with total bills often surpassing $100,000 to $400,000 per child before insurance, according to ABC Law Centers — a financial reality that helps explain why even a partial-wage-replacement program isn't enough to cover a family's costs during a stay like this. Oregon's state-run Paid Leave Oregon program, launched in 2023, offers eligible workers up to 12 weeks of partial wage replacement for family health needs, but it does not cover secondary lodging or medical equipment, according to program details from Paid Leave Oregon.
The 2022 Shootout That Made Marshall A Local Hero
Marshall's current ordeal is unfolding four years after he became known for a very different kind of crisis. In 2022, while the family still lived in Peaceful Valley, Washington, a neighbor opened fire on two Whatcom County sheriff's deputies with a shotgun during a dispute, shooting both in the head, according to KOIN's reporting. Marshall, a former U.S. Army combat veteran who served in the Middle East, returned fire on the suspect and helped save the two deputies, both of whom survived.
The Washington State Senate later passed a resolution in February 2022 officially recognizing Marshall and a neighbor for grabbing their own firearms and providing cover fire that allowed one wounded deputy to pull his injured partner to safety, according to legislative records from LegiScan. Deputies Ryan Rathbun and Jason Thompson each suffered permanent injuries from the shooting — including partial vision loss, traumatic brain injury and PTSD — that ultimately ended their law enforcement careers, according to KING 5 News. Thompson lost vision in his left eye, and Rathbun nearly lost his eye along with suffering a hand fracture, the station reported.
The shooter, 63-year-old Joel Berck Young, was convicted by a Whatcom County Superior Court jury on two counts of attempted second-degree murder and sentenced in October 2024 to 40 years in prison, according to Cascadia Daily News. The two deputies had also filed a civil lawsuit against Young in March 2022 for assault and battery, and the Washington State Attorney General's Office later awarded them the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor for Exceptional Meritorious Conduct in 2023, recognizing their willingness to protect each other and civilians during the gunfight.
Waiting To Bring The Twins Home
For now, Marshall's family is focused on getting through the weeks ahead in Portland rather than looking back at 2022. If everything goes smoothly following the twins' expected release, the family can finally return home to Reedsport, according to KOIN's reporting. Marshall said he is seeking support from others as the family works through the financial and emotional strain of caring for two premature infants far from home.
The twins' situation reflects a broader medical reality for multiple births: nearly 60 percent of twin pregnancies in the United States end in premature birth before 37 weeks, compared to roughly 10 percent of single births, according to the March of Dimes. Twin deliveries average around 35 weeks gestational age, making a birth at 28 weeks especially severe. For the Marshall family, that statistic has translated into weeks of uncertainty, hospital visits, and mounting bills as they wait for the day they can finally bring their sons home to the Oregon coast.
