Hear from one family from the DaSilva Center for Ebstein's Anomaly at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Transcript

Avery's Mother

Six years ago, I had our firstborn, Avery. We found out that she had Ebstein's anomaly after I delivered. We had some complications, and they took Avery right away to the NICU. After those six weeks, we were able to come home. Avery was stable and actually didn't require any oxygen. The next couple of years, it was letting her grow and develop, and encouraging her to be herself and be as active as she could be. She was getting tired with walking and just having trouble keeping up with everybody. So, we discussed with our cardiologist what the next steps were. He had mentioned the cone procedure.

Avery's Mother

After my husband and I started looking it up, we realized that the man who invented it was just a few hours away from us. From the moment we entered the door, we were just super impressed with the organization, the compassion. After meeting with Dr. Da Silva and his team, we felt very confident. So when she was four years old, about two years ago, she underwent open-heart surgery and had the cone procedure done by Dr. Da Silva. The surgery was very successful. As soon as we saw her in the ICU, she was a color that we had never seen before. She was this beautiful pink, and I'll never forget that day. Dr. Da Silva came and talked to us and saw Avery every day. And that really made us comfortable. She healed so impressively well. Children are just so resilient. We walked out of there after 10 days. She was walking around the hospital. We walked down to the pharmacy to get the meds. She was walking further distance than she ever had before in the hospital. It was just amazing.

Avery's Mother

Even as she continued to grow over the next two years, she still does things today that she was never able to do. We were able to walk the whole zoo a couple of months ago. Previously to that, we had to take a stroller everywhere we went. We just love to see how she continues to grow and develop. And it's just so nice to see her being able to do the things that she wants to do. We could not thank Dr. Da Silva and his team enough for our outcome, and we wish everyone else the best of luck in their Ebstein's journey. Thank you for letting us share ours.

Avery

Hi, my name is Avery. I am six years old. I had a heart surgery. Now I can do stuff that I couldn't do before. I like to run now. I can walk all the way to the ice cream stand now. I now can tackle Everick. I liked how when I was at the hospital, my cousins could visit me.

Avery's Mother

Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah.

Avery

And then I could play with them, but I had to sit on a chair or my bed. And now I don't have those tubes on me.

Avery's Mother

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Avery

I'm really good at running now since I already had my heart surgery. Thank you, Dr. Da Silva and thank you team for fixing my heart.