Charleigh Rae Charleigh Rae

Charleigh was diagnosed in utero with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome at 22 weeks. HLHS is a complex heart defect that has to be treated through a series of 3 surgeries. HLHS kids’ anatomy is made up of too much blow flow and oxygen going to the lungs and little to none going to the rest of the body because of the single ventricle heart, so essentially they live with half a heart. Charleigh was born at Vanderbilt on September 19th after being induced due to heart rhythm issues during a doctors appointment. She had her emergency Norwood operation on September 20th (just ONE day old!!) due to overcirculation. She was very acidotic because of the lack of oxygen going to her organs. 11 days later they had to reopen Charleigh to restrict the shunt they made during the first surgery. It has been very rough but she’s still fighting ❤️❤️