Haven
Age 5
Arkansas
Arkansas Children’s Hospital
Heart Defect
Haven has a smile that can light up a room. For Haven’s parents, a day never goes by without feeling profoundly grateful for that smile.
Within hours of her birth, Haven was rushed from the hospital where she was born to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. There she was diagnosed with pulmonary stenosis, a congenital heart defect. In simple terms, the artery that connects Haven’s heart to her lungs was almost completely closed. She also had a valve in her heart that did not close properly. To repair the defects, Haven underwent two heart procedures in her first 11 days of life.
Both surgeries were successful, but at 12 days old Haven’s tiny body suddenly began to shut down. For 58 agonizing minutes, caregivers performed CPR to keep her alive. Once stabilized, she was placed on ECMO, a heart-lung bypass machine that gave her body time to rest and heal.
Today Haven is making progress overcoming speech and motor skill delays with the help of ongoing therapy. Most importantly, she is a happy 5-year-old with a heart that works just as it should.
Hi my name is Michelle, and I read your post I know what your going through,we are from Idaho and our little girl has a heart defect to when she was born. She has been on heart meds since birth and a heart monitor from birth to 7 1/2 months old before we got to have it removed. Every thing was going great it was almost a year when she out grew her meds and almost a year went by before she had her cardiac arrest. Our little girl is also 5 yrs old looking forward to meeting you on this wonderful trip. See you in Oct. The Lancasters
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