Laney Lyon

*Please note that donating to the link on this page to ‘Honor Laney’ is going directly to the caringbridge.org site and not to help the Lyon family.

On Monday, April 18th, our family was completed by the arrival of Laney Serene Lyon.  Beautiful, healthy and calm, we were all overwhelmed with love. We left the hospital on Thursday, came home and began to settle into our new routine.  On Monday evening we noticed Laney's feeding and breathing wasn't quite right.  After some deliberation we decided to head to the new CHKD Urgent Care and arrived 4 minutes before they closed.  They immediately rushed us to the back to examine her.  At that point her color and breathing had changed drastically.  Things escalated very quickly and we learned that Laney was in septic shock, was hypothermic and wasn't getting blood to the majority of her body.  Urgent care called 911 and two EMT squads came immediately. Laney was intubated by a brave paramedic. This call undoubtedly saved her life.

Laney was taken by ambulance to the CHKD ER in Norfolk, where she was somewhat stabilized before being transferred to the PICU. Those were the longest, scariest hours of our lives. Early that morning we learned what we were facing.  There are four main issues with Laney's heart.  A hypoplastic aortic arch, a coarctation of the aorta, a VSD and an ASD.  A hypoplastic aortic arch and the a coarctation of the aorta are basically a narrowing of the aorta in two separate places, one more narrow than the other.  VSD and ASD are basically two holes in her heart, in two different locations, one more serious than the other.

Laney is currently stable in the PICU and regaining strength for her upcoming open heart surgery on Monday, May 2nd.  There were discussions about transferring her to UVA for the surgery, thankfully the second surgeon is coming to consult at CHKD specifically for Laney's surgery.  We are confident that we have a collaboration of the best two surgeons in the state and know Laney is in the most capable hands.

We are overwhelmed with the love and support for our family. The outpouring of texts, messages and phone calls are greatly appreciated.  If we don't respond, please understand that we are receiving them, and they are keeping us going.  During this stressful time, we ask for prayers for Laney.  Prayers that she is strong and that God is merciful.  We have a long road ahead of us but feel hopeful and grateful that all of the issues we are facing are fixable.

Our other loves, Holly and Tori, are being well cared for by family and friends.  We are doing our best to keep their lives as normal as possible.  We look forward to our family being together...at home, with our baby.  Our party of five together again.

Laney's heart is full of love, and not broken.  And neither are ours.  Thank you.  All of our love, Chris + Steph xoxo