Atlanta baby returns home after 307 days in hospital following heart transplant
Atlanta baby gets heart transplant after 307 days
An Atlanta infant born with a heart defect returned home just over a week after receiving a life-saving heart transplant at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
ATLANTA - A 10-month-old girl who spent most of her life inside a hospital is back home with her family following a successful heart transplant.
Violet was born with a heart defect called complete AV canal alongside a genetic defect, which caused her to go into heart failure when she was just 2 weeks old. She spent 307 days at the hospital.
What they're saying:
"This is the bead when she got the heart transplant," said Violet's mother, Ansleigh Brumbelow. "A yellow one is every night she spent in the hospital."
Her family spent 177 of those days on the waiting list, praying for an organ match. When the phone call finally arrived to notify them that a heart was available, the news brought mixed emotions.
"I wanted to be excited," Brumbelow said. "This was the call we were waiting for, for so long. But all I could think of is this is she’s going to go under and through a huge operation."
Surgeons successfully completed the complex procedure, and Violet made a rapid recovery, returning home about a week and a half after the operation.
"If we had not done the VAD and transplant she wouldn’t have survived to this age," said Dr. Josh Rosenblum, a congenital cardiac surgeon at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital. "She will be able to do all things her sister and all other kids her age can do and participate and be a normal healthy kid."
Her parents said the physical transformation was almost immediate once she received her new heart.
"I can't believe how great she looks now," Brumbelow said. "They told me when they get a new heart you won't believe how much changes. It really does change overnight, her color and her energy."
While her family celebrates having all three of their daughters healthy and together under one roof, they remain deeply conscious of the sacrifice that made her recovery possible.
"It takes a life to get to where we are now," said Violet's father, Parker Blackerby. "We are grateful right now, but it's something heavy in my thoughts day to day."
"I couldn’t be more grateful for someone to make such a selfless decision on the hardest day of their life," Brumbelow added.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from Ansleigh Brumbelow and Parker Blackerby, who explained how their daughter recovered following a heart transplant, as well as Dr. Josh Rosenblum of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Arthur M. Blank Hospital.