Kalani

Kalani Corrine-Jean was born August 25, 2001. We had no idea that Kalani had Congenital Heart Defects. She had an Apgar score of 9.8. She would not eat or latch on no matter how hard we tried. Eight hours after delivery we were shocked! to find out that she had a cleft palette of the soft palette. Next, we were told about a heart murmur. The next morning, she was transferred to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg where we were surrounded by doctors and nurses.

At 11 days of age, Kalani had open heart surgery to repair a VSD, ASD, PDA and Coarctation of the Aorta. She still has Mitral Valve Regurgitation and a Bicuspid of the Aortic Valve. After surgery she suffered a hernia where the chest tubes were, and bruised vocal cords. Kalani had a feeding tube inserted into her stomach. She was able to come home at 8 weeks of age!

At home we had a feeding machine for her throughout the night. We aggressively worked with Kalani on her eating habits, refusing to use the feeding tube. She was eating by mouth without use of the tube. Kalani's cleft palette was repaired at 6 months of age, and her feeding tube was removed 1 month later.

Kalani has regular 6 month check-ups with the cardiologist. Her heart is stable, and she takes daily medicine. Later in life she will need another surgery to help correct the mitral valve regurgitation.

She is a normal 4 year old girl, as normal as she can be. She plays, runs and climbs on everything.