Maevyn was born with a congenital heart condition known as Tetralogy of Fallot, which encompasses four distinct abnormalities in her heart. She spent 25 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), receiving supplemental oxygen and undergoing a series of tests and procedures, including the placement of her feeding tube. Finally, on April 9th, she was able to return home. We cherished the moments spent cuddling her, and enjoyed the brief return to a sense of normalcy.
However, on May 20th, Maevyn was airlifted to a children’s hospital in Georgia due to dangerously low oxygen levels stemming from her heart complications. She remained hospitalized for eight days as we awaited her heart repair. On May 28th, she underwent her first open heart surgery, during which she was placed on bypass for a five-hour operation. Initially, everything appeared to be progressing well until two days later when her doctors discovered that the repair on her heart valve had torn open, which led to an urgent return to surgery. Again, she was put on bypass while the surgeons worked to fix her valves.
Following this second operation, Maevyn’s body did not respond as her medical team had hoped, and she required ECMO support—a form of life support that assists her heart, lungs, and kidneys. She has now been on ECMO for four days. We are comforted by the small signs of improvement in her heart function post-surgery. Sadly, her tiny body has struggled to cope with the immense stress of recent events, leading to severely compromised lung function. Her kidneys are currently on dialysis to manage the medications she has been receiving. We are still unsure of her recovery time but we are taking it one day at a time and praying for healing.
