CLEVELAND, OH (CLEVELAND CLINIC) - Angie Voisard is happy to have her baby girl back home.
“Pregnancy was completely normal, just like all of my other kids. No complications at all,” she recalled.
But, everything changed when Bella turned two months old.
“I came home from work and her breathing was very rapid,” said Angie.
So she rushed her to the hospital.
“They took an image of her heart and told us that it was very enlarged and to pray because we may lose Bella,” said Angie. “All the other organs were also failing at the same time.”
Due to the severity of her condition, Bella was transferred to Cleveland Clinic Children’s where she met with Gerard Boyle, MD, pediatric cardiologist.
“Bella was on ECMO, and it essentially does the work of the heart and the lungs. She was still very sick, and we did an echocardiogram and her heart was not doing very much at all,” said Dr. Boyle.
The decision was made to put her on the heart transplant list.
“Me and her dad were like, how did we get here? It was crazy. It took a toll on our whole family,” said Angie.
Six months later Angie finally got the call they had been praying for: a donor heart became available.
“This heart was just perfect. The size of the donor, the age of the donor, the function of the heart were all perfect,” said Dr. Boyle. “When that happens, our surgeons are incredibly skilled at removing the old heart, putting in the new one, and in this case, it really was really seamless.”
Fast forward to now and Bella is doing great. Angie credits everyone on the medical team and her faith in God.
“To make it to where we are now, just so blessed to have her here still with us,” she said fondly.
