The Heart of Addison

Hi, my name is Mallory, my husband Tim and I are here to raise money to help us when our daughter Addison has her VSD surgery. Addison is 8, she will be 9 in February. She is in 3rd grade and absolutely loves school. She is one of the kindest, smartest, wittiest young girls I've every known! Tim and I are so very proud of her and her teachers always telling us how responsible, kind, and outgoing she is in class. Addison loves to spend time with her cousins and play at the park as often as possible.

This is so hard to believe that she will have to go through open heart surgery. She was born with a small hole in her heart and at 3 months old we were referred to Children's Mercy Cardiology department because her pediatrician heard something abnormal. She received an echo and that is when they discovered the small hole. Years passed and the pediatrician thought it sounded smaller and that is would most likely close on its own. Fast forward to her last check-up that was about 4 or 5 months ago the pediatrician thought it sounded like the hole had grown larger and we were referred back to Children's Mercy.

On October 29, 2021 I took her to her appointment and it was found that the hole she has will never close on its own. The hole is located right next to her aortic valve and is causing leakage. The leakage is causing an abundance of blood flow to the left side of her heart and is slightly bigger than the right side. The doctor told us that she wanted to talk to her colleagues and would call me in a couple of weeks.

On Friday November 12, 2021 the doctor said that her and her colleagues agreed it would be best to get the hole in Addison's heart closed. I broke down and couldn't imagine my baby having open heart surgery. The doctor said the surgery is common, but not easy because of the location. She said we could wait until after the holidays, but that waiting longer than that could be dangerous.

I began to panic because my husband and I will have to take FMLA to be with her. Addison will be in the hospital for up to 10 days and then will have to be home from school for 2 weeks after. That amounts to an entire month of neither of us being able to work. We have exhausted all our PTO and don't know what else to do.

We THANK YOU for taking the time to read about Addison!