Savannah Simone’s Story

Site created on February 21, 2020

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

IMPORTANT**** - Thank you all for your kind words. Please know we appreciate all your love and concern. The “CaringBridge” link shows a way to keep the page running. We are “NOT” requesting any donations to that link. We have received many inquiries about donations to assist with out-of-pocket hospital expenses and surgery. We have setup a GoFundMe link within the "WAYS TO HELP" link above in addition to a journal entry below. 


Thank you for the love and especially the prayers.
Art, Analeisa and Savannah



This is Savannah Simone Barron. We post pictures of her smiling and being a shining light all the time because this is really how she is daily. Savannah was born with a heart murmur (basically a hole in her heart) and has been going to a cardiologist monthly since 7 days after she was born. Her Cardiologist said it may close on its own and they would monitor her progress every visit. All the visits all the way through January seemed pretty routine and every visit left us with hope she would heal on her own. December was a rough month for Savannah. In December, we decided to join a new gym. We were excited about getting healthy again and selected this gym because of their stellar children’s care (among other things). On her first childcare visit, of course she gets her first cold. She was sick and stayed sick for a whole month plus. Savannah still has a cough (that occasionally wakes her at night) to this day. She didn’t gain a lot of weight in December and due to her condition, that was not in her favor. Savannah is already on the lower end of baby weight percentile, but the positive is her height is at a higher end percentile.


Her mid-January appointment comes around. Her cardiologist observes and tests Savannah further like normal. But this is a different outcome. One we have been dreading. The Doctor now advises open heart surgery because her heart is now enlarged, and her weight hasn’t progressed like we hoped. As parents, when we found out we were pretty much a wreck in private. We were devastated, angry, sad and looking for answers. We were able to get a second opinion through an amazing friend connection and the second opinion came to the same conclusion. Surgery is now a reality for Savannah.  


Monday, February 17th, 2020 was our open-heart surgery consultation appointment at Dell Children’s Hospital. During the consultation we met with Dr. Charles Fraser and his nursing staff to detail the procedure, recovery and were able to ask questions. We had a long list of questions and they answered all of them completely. Since then and before, I’ve been really going crazy inside picturing the physical act of them cutting her open and seeing her in that state with tubes everywhere. We hurt for her but must be extra strong for her. Our resilient baby Savannah was her usual bright self during the appointment, making everyone in the room laugh and smile while we were being weighted by these graphic details and procedures. I thought to myself, we can learn a lot from her and smile in the face of danger. 


Ultimately, the surgery should fix Savannah like the issue never happened. It will also allow her to gain weight like a normal kid, become stronger and put her development back on track. She’s a happy go lucky 7-month-old that smiles 24/7. Getting this procedure will help her ongoing cough (that she’s had since December), which is being caused by the murmur that she’s getting fluid in her lungs which causes coughing fits, among other small issues that would also be fixed. 
We are very much looking forward to getting past this. Surgery is scheduled for the morning of March 19th, 2020. The procedure should take 4-6 hours. Recovery time in the hospital is around 4-5 days and home recovery time is 6 weeks. We will be in the hospital with her the whole time. Bringing her home healthier than she was before is all that we’re praying for. 

Newest Update

May 4, 2020

Journal entry by Analeisa Barron —

Today is a very special day! Today marks six weeks post-surgery for our beautiful girl <3 Her recovery has been amazing to watch.  Savannah is incredibly resilient, strong-minded, and an all-around happy baby.  We are amazed at how quickly she began to heal.  Her 5-week check-up with her cardiologist was this past Tuesday.  Dr. Holt was very happy with her EKG, oxygen levels, and sonogram results. And in his words, her heart is happy and beating strong!!! He said she sounded great, her lungs are clear with no signs of pneumonia.  Her fluids are flowing, all is back to a normal size no longer squeezing her lungs. AND... the scarred tissue has NOT returned to her mitral valve meaning she will most likely never need to undergo another surgery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Praise God!

We have both noticed so many improvements on our end so it felt SO wonderful to get these confirmations from Dr. Holt. Savannah has put on 2.3 lbs since she went in for surgery, her clothes are fitting better, and her appetite has increased a ton! But most of all, she lets us hold her more these days. Before surgery she would not allow us to feed her, she refused a bottle around 4.5 months and it broke our hearts.  What we didn't know at the time was her heart was so enlarged that it was making it hard for her to breathe in most reclined positions.  So she was compensating by pushing us away and feeding herself so she could get comfortable. She's getting older (almost 10 months) and she is getting feistier by the day so she wants more and more independence these days but those moments that she does let us hold her and feed her are truly priceless!!! We live for those moments. 

To everyone who has called, text, emailed, donated, sent cards, flowers, etc we are so grateful to you ALL.  Art and I would have never been able to stay afloat financially if it weren't for all YOU!! Again, we thank you for the generosity you have shown our family. 

Xo!
Savannah's Momma 
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