Emery’s long road to recovery

Hi, my name is Belinda, and I’m fundraising for my best friend Kiran and her family. On June 19, Kiran gave birth to her only baby girl, Emery, by emergency c-section. She & her husband knew during pregnancy that Emery had a congenital heart defect (ASD), but it was only after delivery that they became aware of how much more serious it was. While Kiran recovered from her own surgery at DMC in Modesto, Emery was air-lifted to Sutter Sacramento where she could be given specialty care. In addition to the large ASD, she also had a VSD, DORV, left SVC and TAPVR. I know, it’s a lot of acronyms. Even I don’t quite understand it all, but basically she had a large hole in her atria wall, a smaller one in her ventricular wall, and several veins that are connecting in the wrong places and routing blood flow incorrectly. This means her oxygenated blood is mixing with deoxygenated blood. This caused her heart to work WAY too hard (the doctors said it was like running a marathon 24/7) and blood to backfill into her lungs, so her breathing is severely affected as well. Because of how hard her heart and lungs were working, she burns way too many calories, so she has been unable to put on weight adequately and had a feeding tube inserted before being discharged from Sutter Sacramento. She has been on two heart medications since birth, but they were not enough to keep Emery well. On August 26, her breathing became more labored than normal, so her parents took her back to Sutter Sacramento, where she was admitted. Several tests were run with no clear diagnosis. Unfortunately, the doctors and nurses there severely mismanaged Emery’s care. They caused her to become severely dehydrated, all of her electrolytes were imbalanced, and as a result, she had an acute kidney injury as well. Her tiny little body was shutting down. Kiran, being a nurse, recognized the poor quality of care and demanded a transfer to Stanford. Emery ended up on a ventilator right before Stanford’s team picked her up on August 31. It was touch-and-go that first night, but the doctors and nurses at Stanford literally saved her life. She got stronger each day, and on September 15, she underwent a complex 13 hour surgery that’ll give her a chance at a normal life. Recovery will be a long, hard road, with at least another month in the hospital. Emery will also need a second surgery sometime in the near future to make more repairs. Kiran has been fortunate so far to get her medical leave from work extended, but her husband, Pinder, is self employed. While that allows him the flexibility he needs to be present, it also means he doesn’t have paid time off or sick leave. Their savings has been helping to keep them above water while they focus on their daughter, but it’ll only go so far. My goal with this fundraiser is to give them enough help to allow both of them to continue to be present for their baby girl while she continues to fight for her life.