Charlotte Blake’s Journey Post Heart Transplant

Hi, my name is Ashley Britton. I am Charlotte’s aunt. Courtney (my sister) and Blake have a sassy 3 year old, Caroline, and just welcomed sweet Charlotte on April 11th, 2023. In December 2022, Courtney had an abnormal ultrasound where we first learned of a cardiac issue with Charlotte. After she was born, Charlotte had an echo to confirm the problems. Charlotte has critical aortic arch stenosis (narrowing), a unicuspid aortic valve, and HLHC (hypoplastic left heart complex). Basically the arch was too narrow, the aortic value had one flap instead of three, and her left side of the heart is too small. When they first did echos after birth they deemed this as an “easy fix” and decided their surgery plan. There were a few options but they decided on the one they thought would allow her to recover quickly while fixing the issues. After her surgery on April 14th, the surgeons bragged how phenomenal they did and how they think this would be the only surgery she would have. On April 19th, Charlotte was able to be extubated and we were told she was progressing great. We were even told it might be around 10 days until discharge. Well as many of you know, Charlotte went into cardiac arrest less than a week following her surgery on April 20th. It was very traumatic and a very long code. They were able to save her and it appeared it was a fluke thing related to her heart rate & blood pressure being elevated for an extended period of time which essentially wore her heart out. After the code, she was intubated and we felt like back to square one. Over the next few days, Charlotte started improving and looked like things were going in the right direction despite a few hiccups. On April 25th, Charlotte was extubated for the second time and we felt like we could breathe again. Well April 26th, all that changed. Charlotte started having the increased heart rate again and being agitated. They did a chest x-ray and another echo. The chest x-ray showed fluid and the echo showed increased pulmonary pressure. They decided to take her down to the cath lab. Once they were able to view everything it appears, her aortic valve begin shrinking again constricting blood flow. They used a balloon to correct this issue. We were also told that they think there are multiple surgeries in our future and a hospital stay of at least 2-3 more months. We were blindsided since the team has seemed so confident for days. We are back to square one with her being intubated and sedated. On May 2nd, Charlotte coded for the second time. On May 4th, she underwent her 2nd open heart surgery (The Norwood). She seemed to really adjust to this new cardiac flow and quickly progressed. Over the course of 2 weeks, she was able to start feeds, be without oxygen, and started to be a “normal baby”. We were elated and even had a discharge date of potentially mid June. On May 27th, Charlotte turned grey and essentially experienced a medication code. She was immediately intubated and sedated once again. We have now learned that her heart function is significantly decreased. Our only option was to join the transplant list. She received a heart transplant on August 24th, 2023. She has had a very rocky recovery. She has remained in the hospital since transplant. She will hopefully be discharged HOME for the FIRST time EVER on February 19th.

Courtney and Blake live in Desoto County, MS and will be staying with Charlotte at Lebonheur in Memphis. I am setting up this GoFundMe as a way for Courtney & Blake to have extra financial means to cover expenses such as gas, food, household bills, time off work for Blake, daycare for Caroline, activities for Caroline to help her cope as best we can, medical supplies for Charlotte, & anything in between. Eventually medical bills will also be coming in. If you are not able to donate, we appreciate all the prayers.