Giana Galvan

On August 30th 2017 we got to meet our sweet little Miss Giana Galvan ❤️

We found out at our 20 week ultrasound that something was different about our baby. After meeting with specialists we were told that Giana has Heterotaxy, a rare birth defect where her organs are arranged differently. But no baby who has Heterotaxy is alike, and so it is a very challenging diagnosis to treat. Giana is of course fabulously unique.

Because of her Heterotaxy, Giana's heart is very special. It is anatomically different than a normal heart and as a result one of her diagnosis is Left Heart Syndrome. The left lower chamber of her heart never fully developed, making it difficult to properly circulate oxygenated blood to her body. She will now live with a single ventricle heart. Her first surgery was on September 5th, where our wonderful surgeon placed a shunt in her heart to help with circulation problems. This was the first stage of three surgeries.

This first surgery went very well but they soon discovered that she also had Leiden Factor 5, a blood clotting disorder. The doctors began treating her for this with blood thinners that we injected in her legs twice a day. Everyone was so impressed by her recovery and tenacity that we were able to go home with her on September 13th!!

At home she seemed to be doing so well but on September 20th Giana was taken back to the hospital by ambulance. She wasn't sustaining oxygen and began to go pale in our arms. She stopped breathing in the ambulance. We started CPR with the paramedic giving compressions. Giana was given chest compressions for 80 minutes total in the ambulance and at the hospital. When they finally brought her back to life she was placed on a heart and lung bypass machine called ECMO. A stent was then placed in her shunt to open it back up because the doctors had discovered that it had clotted and gone from 3.5 millimeters down to 1.1 millimeters wide.

We are now praying that she doesn't have permanent brain damage, but she is fighting the odds that are against her; 80 minutes is a long time to have chest compressions and without full oxygen to the brain. Please also pray that she doesn't loose her right leg, which they are concerned may have clotted up while placing the stent and working to save her. Interestingly she was recently put on leech therapy to help with this, as nothing else has worked so far.

Gigi has always been our little fighter and we are so blessed for all of the time God has already given us to hold her and love her ♥️ We are trusting in Him to give us more time with her, and for her to have a full life with us. We are working at filling her life with love and prayer in days of healing ahead. Thank you for all of the love, prayers, and any financial support you can provide to help our baby girl ♥️