When This 13-Year-Old Found Out She Needed Open Heart Surgery, She Told Her Mom Not To Worry Because Doctors Will Be There To Fix Her Heart
Hinckley, Minnesota. 13-year-old Kenzie recently learned that she needs to have open heart surgery because she has a birth defect that has caused her severe damage to one of her aortic valves.
Essentially, Kenzie’s heart has to work overtime to keep her alive.
“Makenzie (Kenzie) was born with only 2 valves in her heart, we are supposed to have 3,” her mom Heidi Jean wrote on a GoFundMe page created for her.
“For many years she stayed in the “moderate” level which describes the increased blood flow in one valve and narrowing in the other. At age 10 we went into the “mild” stage and We were told that around age 13-14, she will need surgery. As her heart will have grown to adult size.”
Kenzie’s mom has diligently taken her to doctor appointments to keep an eye on her heart, and at Kenzie’s August visit, they got some bad news.
Doctors told Heidi that Kenzie was starting to become more severe, but despite that, she wasn’t showing any outward signs.
So, Heidi was instructed to bring Kenzie back after 4 months for another follow-up. The next month, Kenzie entered 7th grade and she also celebrated her 13th birthday.
Heidi started realizing that Kenzie was struggling with getting tired, and then she worryingly began having pains in her chest.
GoFundMe; pictured above is Kenzie
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Not wanting to wait for that 4-month appointment, and Kenzie’s cardiologist told Heidi that they need to immediately operate on Kenzie.
The words Kenzie said to her mom were so wise beyond her age as she attempted to quell her fears over needing major surgery at such a young age.
“Mom don’t be sad and scared that I have to have surgery. Be glad that they can fix my heart,” Kenzie told her mom.
Kenzie is set to undergo her surgery in just a few weeks on December 8th.
“Her aortic valve is unrepairable so they will take that out and use her pulmonary valve to replace her aortic valve,” Heidi said.
“Then they will use a prosthetic valve to replace the pulmonary valve. This is a highly complicated surgery and we Are looking at a lengthy hospital stay with about 5 days in ICU and 14 days in the hospital.”
After Kenzie is able to come home, she’s going to need a lot of therapy, and Heidi is going to need to take time off work to help her through everything.
“I am a single parent and her only parent. I will be taking an unpaid leave of absence from work to stay with her in the hospital and take care of her when she comes home,” Heidi continued.
Heidi feels humbled to now be in a position where she’s asking for help, but as you can imagine, Kenzie’s expenses are quickly adding up, between her actual medical bills, and the travel costs for her and her mom.
If you would like to donate to the GoFundMe Heidi created to help Kenzie as she undergoes her upcoming open heart surgery, you can do that here.
More About:Human Interest
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