Alina, born 2013

When Alina was born she seemed fine. The nurses handed her to me and I got to hold her for a little while before going to the nursery. Then her doctor came in my room and told me she heard a heart murmur and scheduled an echo for Alina. While waiting to meet with the doctor, I went to the nursery. There were a couple people looking over Alina and one of them called me over.

 

The doctor told me she had Tetralogy of Fallot and was border line blue/pink. After 4 days in the NICU they flew her to Children’s National Medical Center in DC to their CICU. She had several "TET" spells and underwent urgent corrective surgery when she was nine days old. She did well in surgery and her surgeon, Dr. Sinha, was great. She got to come home nine days later. She was home for 7 days and readmitted again with a MRSA infection in her incision.

 

She has recovered well and is now the happy baby girl I have always wanted. I will never forget one of her nurses saying to me, "Don't worry, this will all be a memory in a month". It really helped me and it really has gone by so fast!

 

Story by Alina’s mom, Chrissy - Maryland