Charleigh’s Story

Site created on October 8, 2019

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 ❤️❤️

Newest Update

Journal entry by Taylor Prats

a little update on Charleigh - They’re trying to get her down to CT sometime this morning, because her EEG is showing low brain activity to a point they’re concerned. They’re unsure if it’s from the sedation medication or if the brain is damaged from being on bypass for an extended period of time during her surgery Tuesday. The surgeon said it could range from nothing to devastating - but we’re praying it’s nothing and just the medication showing that. She’s stable in the sense of her heart. The x-ray was showing her lung completely whited out and collapsed. So the ultrasound They did yesterday found she had a large pocket of fluid around her lung, so the surgeon put in a drain tube and her x-ray already looked better and the lung was already improving. Praying for good news today because I’m not sure how much more bad news we can take. ❤️❤️
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