Warrior Wednesday

Gracelynn, 9mths

Double Outlet Right Ventricle

At our 20 week anatomy scan we got told we needed to be referred to a maternal fetal medicine specialist due to abnormal findings during the scan. At 22 weeks we saw the specialist and were told Gracelynn had a heart defect and that we needed to be seen by a fetal cardiologist. They were unable to clearly identify exactly what was wrong with Gracelynn’s heart until she was born on April 24, 2024. After a full term delivery she got admitted to the NICU at the university of Iowa children’s hospital due to feeding intolerance. While in the NICU they did many echocardiograms and EKG’s and told us she had a very large ventricular septal defect. September 17, 2024 she underwent open heart surgery to repair the VSD. In November 2024 she had a repeat echo and the saw another hole. In December 2024 she had a CT of her heart to pinpoint this hole and made a 3D print of her heart to study. January 28, 2025 she a second open heart surgery that required over 3 hours on the bypass machine to fix this hole due to the very difficult spot it was located in behind a muscle in her heart right next to the aortic valve.