Photo: GoFundMe
On March 24, Valentina Garnetti left University of Michigan’s CS Mott Children’s Hospital for the first time in her young life,Good Morning Americareported.
Francesca wrote that Valentina was born withhypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare heart condition that caused the left side of her heart to be underdeveloped, according to Mayo Clinic. Because the heart can’t adequately pump blood through the body, babies born with the condition may experience a weak pulse, difficulty breathing and poor feeding, among other symptoms.
During her time at the children’s hospital, Valentina underwent a total of six operations, four of which were open-heart surgeries, her mother explained on the page.
“On top of her major surgeries, she had complication after complication including strokes, seizures, anaphylactic reactions, and being transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for 9 days to have a life-saving procedure done before being flown back to Michigan,” Francesca recalled in the description of the donation page, which has raised nearly $2,000 as of Friday afternoon.
GoFundMe
One out of every 3,841 babies in the United State is born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome every year,according to the Centers for Disease Control.
While there will still be more treatments down the road, the family is delighted Valentina is home and can spend time with her sisters, Gianna, 5 and Adriana, 1.
So far, Valentina has been soaking in as much of her new surroundings as possible.
“She just looks around and you can see the awe and wonder,” Francesca toldWXYZ. “It’s just all the new things she’s never seen before.”
“It’s so amazing,” she said. “I mean, I thought some days it would never happen and so now that it finally is here it’s like a dream come true.”
source: people.com
