Julia: The Coolest Little Girl Around!
Welcome to Julia's open-heart surgery page. Julia was born on December 27, 1997
at Ball Hospital, in Muncie, Indiana. Things went fine at first, but several hours after Julia's
birth a nurse noticed that she was turning grey. The nurse called in a
neo-natal specialist, and he determined that Julia had a serious congenital heart
defect, one known as transposition of the great vessels.
When Julia's heart was forming in the womb, her pulmonary artery and her
aorta reversed. Although we'd "met" her several months earlier (via an
ultrasound), we didn't know about Julia's heart problems because the ultrasound
didn't show which way blood was flowing.
Luckily--ironically--Julia had a second congenital heart defect, one known
as an atrial septal defect (ASD). This defect, which is a hole in the heart
between the top two chambers, allowed a little blood to mix, keeping Julia
alive just after she was born.
After the doctor at Ball made his preliminary diagnosis, Julia was
immediately taken to Riley Children's
Hopsital in Indianapolis. First, she was in neo-natal intensive
care, awaiting surgery. Then, when she was just 6 days old, Julia
underwent a 9-hour open-heart surgery procedure to repair the
transposition and the ASD.
Her surgery was performed by
Dr.
John Brown and Dr.
Mark Turrentine, both of whom are well known for
their great skill as pediatric cardiovascular surgeons.
The operation was sucessful! After recovering
for just over a week in pediatric intensive care, Julia was released from Riley.
(Well, first the surgeons had to take out her drainage
tubes.) When Kris and I
brought Julia home for the first time, it was the happiest day of
our lives!
She has a few light scars, but Julia’s now a happy, healthy
13 year-old. (Plus, she’s a big sister. Her brother,
Riley, was born in November of 2000 with no complications
whatsoever.)
Kris and I are the luckiest
parents in the whole world--lucky to have such great friends
and family members who helped us through such a difficult time, and
even luckier to be the proud parents of the coolest little girl around.