At 2 days old, our daughter, Lyndee, was diagnosed with an interrupted aortic arch and an aortic pulmonary window. Before discovering her heart defects, her body was not pumping enough blood to all of her organs, and her body took a big hit before they could stabilize her blood pressure. She was left suffering from multi-system organ failure and doctors were unsure how long they would be able to control her blood pressure by keeping her medicated, sedated and on a ventilator.
They did her first surgery at 7 days old to put pulmonary artery bands on and give her body more time to heal. We waited for 8 weeks in the PICU for her to get healthy enough to have the full cardiac bypass surgery to repair both of her defects. The surgery went well and we were able to go home from the NICU 9 days later. Since then, she has had 2 angioplasty procedures, countless visits to Dr. Patel, and close monitoring of the condition of her kidneys.
Despite all the challenges she faced in the beginning, you would never know it from her energetic and charming personality, and we have all the amazing staff at Akron Children's to thank for that.
Amanda is a parent mentor for these conditions: Acute Renal Failure, Aortic Stenosis, Aortopulmonary window, Congenital Heart Disease, Heart Murmurs, Interrupted Aortic Arch.
Amanda is a mentor for these care services: Feeding and Nutrition, Nephrology, NICU, Palliative Care, Pulmonary, Seizures, Surgery, Trauma
