Caroline before surgery on March 7th

Caroline’s Story

It’s a new day, the beginning of a new life, Caroline has come home from the hospital. It’s February 28th and everyone has started to settle in. Too soon would come a whirlwind of hardships leading up to the day we shall never forget. Like our oldest daughter Kathryn, Caroline was a "hard to feed" baby. We weren’t overly concerned as this was very similar to Kathryn's feeding pattern. We only knew one very obvious thing, she was jaundiced. Over the next 2 days, we continuously struggled in getting her to drink more than 1 oz. per feeding. She also slept more than being awake, something we considered as possibly normal for a newborn. 

Friday March 2nd, we took Caroline to her first doctor's appointment. They were concerned that her birth weight had dropped to 5lbs.7ozs., as well as her yellow coloring. They sent us to Presbyterian Hospital for a biliruben test which measures the levels of jaundice. A nutritionist recommended the Haberman Feeder bottle, a compression bottle used to force more milk intake. We had very minimal improvement with this despite much continued effort. We were asked to return the next 2 days for weight checks and biliruben tests. Caroline’s weight continued to fall however, the biliruben levels remained within normal range. A visit back on Monday showed a small weight gain and we felt a sense of relief that we would be allowed to skip a day seeing the doctor. How very soon, our delight would prove to be short. 

On Tuesday, March 6th, Mom noticed Caroline was barely feeding and was short of breath afterward. A mother’s intuition that something was not right with her child left little to question, Caroline would once again return to the doctor’s office. This time would be different as our Pediatrician, Dr Feltner, noticed a slight discoloration around her mouth called dusking, the first indication that Caroline should see a Cardiologist. Our concerns heightened as we quickly faced the next step. Upon arriving at Presbyterian Hospital, our sweet little girl was immediately taken to the Hemby Children's Neonatel Intensive Care Unit and placed on various monitoring machines. Tears of emotion would not stop as we waited, totally unaware and unprepared, for what would soon break our hearts even more. Around 4:30 in the afternoon, Dr. Green, a cardiologist, came in to examine Caroline. His initial clinical evaluation seemed very positive but the truth could not hide from the ECO Machine (Heart Sonogram Machine). As the ECO exam began, the evaluation took a downward turn as did our hope. We were staring down our worst nightmare. Our lives seemed out of control and changing faster than we could comprehend. Our daughter Caroline was diagnosed with a Congenital Heart Defect which included 3 major issues: VSD (hole in the heart), Coarctation of the Aorta, and a small Mitral Valve in the left ventricle. It was recommended that she be rushed to Carolina's Medical Center in Charlotte, where 2 Pediatric Cardiologists would evaluate her to confirm what Dr.Green had discovered. Once at CMC Charlotte, we met with Dr. Watts and Dr. Baird (Pediatric Cardiac Surgeons) who had reviewed Caroline’s ECHO and confirmed the prior diagnosis. Devastated and full of despair, we felt this surely was a bad dream that would not end. 

Why us, why Caroline? We so often take for granted that these things don’t really happen that often, and even more so, not to us. However, it was true, it was us and it was our sweet little Caroline. Broken hearted and overwhelmed, we immediately contacted family and started praying to God for mercy on Caroline. Our support network of family, friends and church quickly came pouring out to our rescue and in support of our situation. Caroline was placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit awaiting open heart surgery on Wednesday, March 7th. Thus, our long journey had begun……….