After nearly a year in a neonatal intensive care unit in Kentucky, Isla Gail Brown is going home.”It was heartbreaking, it was scary we didn’t really know what to expect,” said Hailey Brown, Isla’s mother.Doctors discovered a problem with Isla’s heart during a routine ultrasound. “They were like OK she has hypoplastic right heart syndrome and that led us into our heart journey,” said Christian Brown, Isla’s father.It’s a congenital defect in which the right side of the heart is underdeveloped. In severe cases, the heart can’t pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs, leading to heart failure.”It was a scary situation she was immediately intubated when she was born and they just took her to the NICU,” Hailey said.Doctors also discovered Isla has a condition called charge syndrome, an incredibly rare disorder affecting multiple organs.”They realized that she had a severely leaky mitral valve and they did plenty of things to try to stop that leak and it just wasn’t working so we had to move on to the transplant,” Christian said.Isla was put on a heart transplant list last August.As the Browns waited, Hailey and Christian made the most of every moment in the Norton Children’s Hospital NICU, marking milestones, celebrating holidays and making memories.On Jan. 13, Isla was given the gift of life — a new heart.”She’s one of the more dramatic patients I think that I have seen looking so well after her transplant, her color was better, she wasn’t so swollen, she was more active, she was less agitated just everything about her was different,” said Norton Children’s pediatric cardiologist, Nicole Lambert said.After spending the first year of her life in the hospital, Isla is going home just in time to celebrate her first birthday on March 1.”You know this, this is her home and it has been for the year so I’m really excited to get her to her forever home and see how much she flourishes there,” Christian said.”I just hope she thrives and she lives a happy life doing whatever she wants to do and be whoever she wants to be,” Hailey said.
After nearly a year in a neonatal intensive care unit in Kentucky, Isla Gail Brown is going home.
“It was heartbreaking, it was scary we didn’t really know what to expect,” said Hailey Brown, Isla’s mother.
Doctors discovered a problem with Isla’s heart during a routine ultrasound.
“They were like OK she has hypoplastic right heart syndrome and that led us into our heart journey,” said Christian Brown, Isla’s father.
It’s a congenital defect in which the right side of the heart is underdeveloped. In severe cases, the heart can’t pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs, leading to heart failure.
“It was a scary situation she was immediately intubated when she was born and they just took her to the NICU,” Hailey said.
Doctors also discovered Isla has a condition called charge syndrome, an incredibly rare disorder affecting multiple organs.
“They realized that she had a severely leaky mitral valve and they did plenty of things to try to stop that leak and it just wasn’t working so we had to move on to the transplant,” Christian said.
Isla was put on a heart transplant list last August.
As the Browns waited, Hailey and Christian made the most of every moment in the Norton Children’s Hospital NICU, marking milestones, celebrating holidays and making memories.
On Jan. 13, Isla was given the gift of life — a new heart.
“She’s one of the more dramatic patients I think that I have seen looking so well after her transplant, her color was better, she wasn’t so swollen, she was more active, she was less agitated just everything about her was different,” said Norton Children’s pediatric cardiologist, Nicole Lambert said.
After spending the first year of her life in the hospital, Isla is going home just in time to celebrate her first birthday on March 1.
“You know this, this is her home and it has been for the year so I’m really excited to get her to her forever home and see how much she flourishes there,” Christian said.
“I just hope she thrives and she lives a happy life doing whatever she wants to do and be whoever she wants to be,” Hailey said.
