Meet my heart hero ~ Alexa! Alexa is my third child, of 4 children. She was diagnosed prenatally with Transposition of the Great Arteries, Ventricular Septal Defect and Pulmonary Stenosis. She has had THREE heart surgeries in her short 21 months of life! This is why she is my heart hero!
She received the BT Shunt Surgery at 2 weeks old and the Rastelli Repair at 17 months old. She did great after surgery but was in Complete Heart Block a possible complication of this surgery, which in turn required her receive a pacemaker surgery about a week later.
The surgery Alexa received in on February 23rd, 2010 was called the Rastelli. This was an 8 hour open heart surgery. Needless to say it was the hardest and longest day of our families life.
The little piece of tubing you see in the image above is a valved conduit. This was placed in place of her pulmonary artery, since hers is 'stenosed' meaning too narrow. This conduit will need to be replaced periodically as she grows along with her pacemaker.
Knowing prenatally that my baby would face an open heart surgery was terrifying but learning she will need several through our her life was at times too much to bare. If it had not been from the loving support of family, friends and from God above we would not have been able to manage this journey. We take things one day at a time. Alexa continues to bring sunshine to our family with her endearing personality, brave spirit and contagious smile ~ she is a true blessing from above!
