It's My Heart New England

When I was 29 weeks pregnant we found out from my OB/GYN at Melrose Wakefield Hospital that our baby had an abnormal heart beat and we would need to get an Echo-cardiogram at Tufts Medical Center. It was after that first ECHO that we found out that our baby had a congenital heart defect called Tetrology of Fallot. We had ECHOs scheduled every month at Tufts until our baby was born. Looking back, it was neat to have so many because we now have tons of ultra sound pictures from the whole pregnancy. My care was transferred from that point to Tufts Medical Center.

On November 19, 2009 my husband Larry and I went into the ultrasound room so happy and waiting to find out the sex of our second child. Before too long we knew things weren't right and what we would find out over the next four days would crush us. We were sent over to Childrens Hospital Boston Advanced Fetal Care unit and soon became aware of what was wrong. Our baby girl had a rare severe anomaly of the heart called Ebsteins Anomaly. Part of her brain hadn't developed and she had a large cleft lip and cleft palate. It did not look good and we were given the option to abort.

My son Connor Peter was born on April 8, 2009, he was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) when I was five months pregnant. He had his first open heart surgery, Norman procedure, when he was two days old. He had some complications that included breathing problems and also had a staff infection while inpatient at the hospital and we were discharged when he was three months old.

Name : Devlyn M
Born : August 31, 2012
CHD Diagnosis: Tetralogy of Fallot

Devlyn was diagnosed pre-birth with Tetralogy of Fallot. His mother Holly was referred to a pediatric cardiologist at 22 weeks into her pregnancy after several unsuccessful images of Devlyn's heart. Additional testing during Holly's pregnancy was done to rule out any other potential heart defects. Devlyn's Dad, Dave, was born with an Atrial Septial Defect which was repaired at the age of 7.

I'm writing to you with our story on our daughter, Molly Renee Leary. She is a four year old little girl that has had a very rough start to her life. When I was 20 weeks pregnant we found out we were having a girl and we were on top of the world. We had tried so hard to get pregnant and nothing was going to bring us down until we received a call from the OB 8 days later telling us they were sending me for a level 2 ultrasound because they think they saw something wrong with the baby's heart. Within a week we had an appointment at New England Medical Center.