Photo: Ivy’s Story: A Journey through HLHS/Facebook
Last July, expectant parents Geoffrey and Rachel Finn found out their daughter, Ivy, had a rare heart defect that meant she would not be able to survive outside of the womb.
The parents, from Jacksonville, Florida, reached out to a range of hospitals to see who would be willing to operate on their daughter in an attempt to save her life, but were denied due to the severity of Ivy’s condition, theirGoFundMe pageexplains. At one point, they were even offered palliative care.
“We went from being super positive to everything spiraling downward. Everything was doom and gloom,” Rachel told theFlorida Times-Unionin August. “We were trying to remain hopeful, but …”
It was something the couple, who also have a 4-year-old son, never imagined would happen.
“That was the low point,” Geoffrey told the newspaper. “Thinking that we were going to have to let her go and there was nothing that modern medicine could do about it.”
The condition, called Hypoplastic left heart syndrome, occurs when the left side of the heart doesn’t develop normally, leaving the left ventricle and the opening of the aorta too small and inhibiting blood flow, according to theCincinnati Children’s Hospital.
Congenital heart defects account for 1 percent of live births, and HLHS is found in about 5 to 9 percent within that percentage.
But Ivy was also diagnosed with an intact atrial septum, which meant her heart’s upper chambers failed to develop as well, theTimes-Unionreported. This made her case even more unusual.
“We kind of said, ‘Ivy, if you live for 10 seconds or if you live for 100 years, we’re going to be there and loving you with all of who we are throughout the entire time,’ ” Geoffrey toldCBS News.
The operation in July was a success, and two months later in September, Ivy was born.
“It was pure joy,” Rachel said. “They placed her on my chest as soon as she was born and she came out screaming and that was something we weren’t sure we’d ever hear and so it was amazing.”
Now, six months after she was born, Ivy is leaving the ICU and heading home with her family. The happy parents explained that Ivy will need another surgery when she is between 2 and 4 years old, and they will continue to monitor her heart after that.
“Really, she’s exceeded expectations in every way,” said Geoffrey toCBS News.
Rachel added, “There aren’t any words to describe how thankful we are that we have her because we really did not think we would. She’s just amazing.”
source: people.com
