Aidenne Elise, born 2008

Aidenne Elise was born March 24, 2008. She was a "miracle baby" from the very beginning. We tried to have a baby for more than six years. Aidenne was a surprise, being spontaneously conceived the month after I miscarried our one IVF attempt. We were more than concerned, when she was diagnosed with Transposition of the Great Arteries, Atrial Septal Defects, and "Swiss cheese" Ventricular Septal Defects at her 20 week ultrasound.

 

We immediately began researching her heart defects and found the Little Hearts website which was the site that gave us the most reassurance and hope. When Aidenne was born, we gave out Little Hearts wristbands with "It's a Girl-Aidenne Elise" printed on the packaging.

 

Aidenne was transported to The Children's Hospital in Denver when she was a day old. At eight days old, she was scheduled for a pulmonary banding to give her more time to grow before her arterial switch and other surgery to close her numerous VSDs. However, she did not tolerate the banding procedure and the decision was made to do the full surgery at that time. Her largest VSD required a Gore-Tex patch and took five hours to sew. Our angel had a very difficult time coming off bypass following her surgery and she spent three days on ECMO. Her chest was left open and due to a metabolic complication the doctors were not able to close it for eleven days. In that time she developed a staff infection and chylous effusions. We felt like it was one complication after another for a while, however, our brave and strong little girl kept fighting and was eventually moved from the cardiac ICU after 35 days. Every day she got stronger and stronger and she came home on May 8th. She had a NG tube and PIC line at home for 10 days and has been tube and wire free since May 20th.

 

Today, she is a happy and very healthy little baby. You would never know all that she has been through to look at her now.

 

We are so thankful to Dr. Francois Lacour-Gayet, Dr. Steven Goldberg, and all the other doctors, nurses and staff at The Children's Hospital of Denver.

 

Story by Aidenne's mom, Lisa - Colorado