Emma was born in March 2005. She was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.

When I was 18.5 weeks pregnant we found out that our daughter had something wrong with her heart. At 22 weeks we visited ACH for the first time and met Dr. Huhta, Lori, and Jenny. They explained to us that Emma had a single ventricle and would need a heart transplant or a series of 3 open heart surgeries. Since her right ventricle was still in good shape it was recommended to do the 3 stage surgeries.
 ACH has a happy heart party. While I was pregnant I met a wonderful family (the Hesouns). There daughter had a heart transplant when she was 22 days old. She brought me to the happy heart party and I met so many families and children with HLHS. It was amazing. I felt so much better after leaving that party, because all you think to yourself is that you are the only one and how could I do this. After seeing the kids and parents…I thought…wow!!! I can do this!!

In March 2005 I delivered our beautiful baby girl at Bay Front Medical Hospital.  Emma was then transferred to ACH.  When Emma was 6 days old she underwent her first stage surgery, the Norwood, which Dr. Q performed.  After Emma’s surgery, she was doing really well.

About 2 weeks after her surgery Emma went into cardiac arrest and we almost lost her. She went limp in my arms and I have never been so scared in my entire life. My husband and parents had gone home the day before to get the house ready, because we thought that we were going to go home the day she went into cardiac arrest. 

I will never forget the noise of the “code Blue” signal and seeing Dr. Dadlani push against my daughter’s chest to save her life. They did CPR for 50 min. I was told that they were going to put her on a life support machine called ECMO.  I then was told to leave the area, because it might not be a good idea to stay. I went into the family area and just cried my eyes out. I thought WHY, HOW. I did everything right for my pregnancy and how could this happen.  I was giving up.

My husband and family made it up and the doctors met up with us and said that she would need a heart transplant and we needed to do the paperwork to get her on the list.

All I wanted to do was hold Emma, but I couldn’t. It was so hard for me. I went into the room and saw all this blood everywhere on her bed from the machine.  Then….came the neurologist.  He had explained to us that there was a big chance that she would have some major brain damage.  It was like what else??? After he told us that…I went to Emma’s bed and sat next to her, with all that her body was going through, she opened her eyes and looked up at me, like everything was going to be okay.

The next day I met a family (the Duncan’s) whose daughter had HLHS too. She also had coded once before and was on ECMO. When I met them and saw the way they loved there girl, no matter what was wrong, I thought to myself…I can do this. Maddie would smile at her mom, and it was the cutest thing.

The next day Dr. Dadlani and Dr. Korang were doing an echo on Emma and called Justin and I over and said that her heart function had jumped up 70%. Emma did a total turnaround. It was a miracle.

Emma was then taken off the ECMO machine. Then Emma got the CT scan and G-tube. The CT scan showed that she had some brain damage on the back right side of her brain. The outcome we could not know till she was older. We ended up going home the end of May.

Emma had her 2nd stage surgery, the Glen, on November 16th 2005. She did great!!! It was as if she came out of the OR room with a smile. It was definitely harder this time around to give her away, but you have to do it and she was in great hands. We went home 2 weeks later.

Emma now is still waiting to get her 3rd surgery which will probably be around her 3rd birthday. She does have CP and is getting stronger every day!!! She knows how to take steps….but can’t keep her balance, but that will comeJ She still has her g-tube. She goes to therapy 3 times a week and horse therapy tooJ
When Emma was off of ECMO all I wanted was to talk to other families. I had heard about a group called Mended Little Hearts. I did some research and decided that it would be a great program for this area!!
My husband and I decided that we wanted to give back and start a Mended Little Hearts group here in St. Pete. Thanks to Dr. Dadlani, Jenny Leshko, Pat Mullen, Kas Sheehan, Kathy Arnold, and all the nurses and staff in the CVICU we were able to get the program started. 

Emma is a miracle to our family….she has brought so much joy and happiness to our family. It is amazing what one person can do in someone’s life. Because of Emma I have met the greatest Doctors, Friends, and Nurses in the world.  This whole experience has taught me the true meaning in life and shown me who my real friends are in life tooJ God never gives you something you can’t handle. And I truly believe that God does things for a reason.  If it wasn’t for the great research, Doctors, and Nurses, Emma would not be here today. They have given me the best gift of all, and that was helping Emma with her heart so that she could live.