Saving Little Hearts

Treglown family heart story submitted by heart mom Mary Treglown.

Lauren was born on July 2, 2003 a 7.56 pound health baby. On July 3rd, 2003 she was diagnosised With Tetralogy of Fallot compounded by Pulmonary Valve Atresia. She was taken by the pediaflight team to LeBonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, TN. She was taken straight to the cath lab and was in there of 7 hours, they tried to open the membrane where the pulmonary value was suppose to form. The surgery did not work she has taken to the ICU and three days later she had her first major heart surgery for a shunt placement. Lauren was in the hospital for a week then discharged home. We did not know anything about her heart defect or how many other children were effected by defect. I went on line to look up her defect and found a lot of memorial pages that had me even more in tears. I went to a book store and was told by the clerk "Lady babies do not have heart problems!" I left in tears. A week after being home from the hospital Lauren spiked a temp of 102, we rushed her back to Leboheur Children's Hospitial where she was admitted and later diagnosised with Endrocarditis (an infection in her heart) we spent two months in the hospital. We came home and a couple of days after we came home she had bowel movements that were just blood. We rushed her to the doctor to find out she had colitis and it was a very bad case. I had to stop nursing her and she was placed on a very special formula. After a couple of weeks this cleared up. A month passed and we started noticing that she was having several blue spells, we made many trips to our cardiac clinic to check her oxygen sats. A heart cath was scheduled and it was determined that we would have to go in and do the repair as she had started to outgrow the shunt. We were very scared as they told us that she needed to be at least a year before they would do the repair and she was just 6 months. On Jan 28 2004 the open heart surgery to repair her heart was performed. We had a scary moment after the surgery as they had to rush her back, she was still bleeding way to much. After a couple of hours they came in and told us they placed a few more stitches and that she was stable and would could go see her. We never left her side, by morning she had pulled out every IV and was trying to take the vent tube out. By 6 AM the doctors made rounds and took her off the vent. She was discharged home 4 days later. Lauren has done better than anyone ever expected. She has been a very healthy toddler. She will have more surgery, and only her body knows when. Last year she walked in her first heart walk. She was so determined that she walked the 3 miles. It took us a very long time, however she did it. This October we will walk in our second heart walk. We have learned so much the past three years and met many wonderful friends, with children like Lauren. We have a wonderful physician that has not missed any major event in Lauren's life, and even spent many nights in the ICU with us.