Mia O.

Mia has always been a happy child that loves to sing, dance, play, and do anything that involves happiness, smiles and laughter! We never had any signs of Mia having any health issues, During our daughter’s 3 year old annual visit, we were told we should go see a cardiologist because the doctor heard a murmur. We were very worried because we were not sure what was going on at the moment.

We went to see a cardiologist at Joe DiMaggio in Wellington, Florida. Mia had some tests done and the cardiologist mentioned she was 99% sure Mia had Partial Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return  and ASD. She pulled out a paper and drew a heart while explaining to us what she found. We were in shock. I was with my dad. I didn’t know what to do or say. I felt like I was not really hearing what the cardiologist was telling me. All I could think is wow my daughter has a heart defect. We were advised to go to Joe DiMaggio Children’s hospital in Fort Lauderdale. We were still worried and did not know what to think.

We went to Joe DiMaggio for the extra testing. This was hard because Mia had to be put to sleep so she the exam could be taken. Everyone was nice there. We waited for her to wake up from the testing and she woke up crying so much and wasn’t feeling well. We were waiting for results and when we got the results, we were hit with the horrible news of my daughter needing open heart surgery. The news had us in tears for hours, asking my higher power why us? We sat and prayed for hours and understood that in life sometimes you must go through things, but this is one thing that we were not ready for.

We reached out to families with similar situations, and it helped soothe the pain. We reached out to a couple pediatric surgeons in Florida, but they too were not too familiar with Mia’s situation, and it made us concerned to have someone with low experience to do the procedure. We felt like our daughter would be a test for them at this point and we were not comfortable with that at all.

One thing the surgeons mentioned was that if Mia’s issue was not resolved, she might not make it to her teenage years. In a way I think about teenaged that one day collapse over a cardiac issue and the teenagers never had any issues prior. Who knows, if Mia’s pediatrician would not have caught the murmur we would have continued life and who knows, maybe Mia truly would not have made it to her teenage years.

After months of getting different opinions, we learned that Boston Children’s Hospital was known for being one of the hospitals with the most success rate with the procedure that Mia needed. A local mom’s daughter had a heart condition and ended up going to Boston to get surgery with Dr. Baird. The local mom gave me Dr. Bairds information so we reached out to get a consultation. We spoke with Dr. Baird from Boston’s Childrens Hospital, and he was well knowledgeable, and we automatically felt like he was the one.

Unfortunately, we were miles away from Boston and we did not know how we could get to Boston in such a short matter of time. We did some research online and reached out to Barbara from PALS, that’s when she told us she would get us to Boston and to top it off we would be flying in a huge private jet. It was a blessing in disguise.. We arrived to Boston and went to pre op. We finally met the famous Dr. Baird. He was a serious guy and went over Mia’s situation and what he would do. We were so worried but Dr. Baird made it okay. We left after pre-op.

We went back the morning of surgery which happened to be the day before thanksgiving!. We were losing it but tried to remain calm. We were waiting to get called into the OR. There were other families there and a little girl that was there started to cry and said she didn’t want to have surgery. It broke my heart and I started to cry. I was crying because Mia is only 3 years old and didn’t fully understand that she was going in to have open heart surgery. I had to remain strong. We were called back and everyone was so nice. The nurses and anesthesiologists were amazing. Mia then left with the nurses and anesthesiologists to go to the OR. We were told to wait in the waiting room or go out. This was the most scariest moment of our life.

We waited for what felt was an eternity. We eventually saw the lady that was communicating with us every step of the surgery. She told us that the surgery was complete. Dr. Baird came out after and my husband saw him smile and heard Dr. Baird say “succes”. I wasn’t really paying attention but that was pretty much what happened because Dr. Baird said the surgery was complete and it went well!

We were told that someone would call us when we could see her. Eventually we were called and saw Mia who was completely out of it and when she woke up she wasn’t to happy but she was discharged 3 days after and after leaving the hospital.

We took extra care for the next 6 weeks she couldn’t get in water, she had to be careful and was limited to doing various things. Hoping all is well during her visit next week. Mia now wants to be a doctor like Dr. Baird to help little kids diagnosed with heart defects. She loves to show her scar, she loves to talk to people about her journey. She is so young but so mature.