For preemie girl's tiny heart, a huge life-saving miracle

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Kaylin Baker's heart, no larger than a quarter, was soon to fail.

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Born two months premature, and weighing just 2 pounds, 8 ounces, Kaylin had two defects in her aorta, the body's largest artery, which carries blood from the heart to the body.

Two narrowings, one in a valve leading from the heart to the aorta and the other farther down the line, were forcing the heart to work overtime to deliver blood throughout her tiny body. Without surgery, her doctors said, the heart soon would pump itself to death.

Then, said first-time parents and Baker of Austin, a miracle happened.

Instead of cutting her chest open — a difficult procedure from which Kaylin might never recover — physicians at Houston's Texas Children's Hospital devised a daring, almost certainly never-before-tried procedure in a baby so small.

Read the rest here:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/metropolitan/4062091

Gail Neuman RNC CPHW SNP LNCstudent nurse practitioner and student midwifelistowner of LegalNurseConsulting certified high risk OB/legal nurse consultantPerinatal Nurse AssociatesNotary Public/Certified Loan Signing AgentPrePaid Legal Sales AssociateSanta Ana, CA