Lorelai's Warrior Heart

On May 9th 2024 our beautiful girl, Lorelai, took her first breath, as we excitedly anticipated meeting our healthy baby girl. Little did we know that breath would soon only be achieved with the support of many loud machines, and as parents we could not yet grasp the difficult road we would have to walk with our warrior daughter. Lorelai surprised us with a very special heart that can only be mended by a team of specialists at Sunninghill Hospital. So we made our urgent journey up to Johannesburg from East London via an emergency air ambulance, along with many prayers. 

Lorelai has a condition called Pulmonary Atresia, which is a heart defect that occurs in 1 in 10 000 babies. It occurs when the pulmonary valve does not develop. This means blood can't flow from the heart to the lungs to get oxygen to her little body.

She also has a Ventricular septal defect (VSD), which means she has a hole in the wall between the heart's lower chambers. Life expectancy for babies with pulmonary atresia is 80% mortality rate by 1 year of age.

So in the next few weeks,...