Health_Sept16

Sound Mind
LIVING WITH
CONGENITAL
HEART
DISEASE
Living longer and better lives
By Maggie FitzRoy I Photography courtesy of the American Heart Association
Lee Ann Walker was 22 weeks pregnant with her daughter Ryleigh when she learned
during an ultrasound that her baby had a serious heart defect. The diagnosis was truncus
arteriosis, a rare type of heart disease in which the aorta does not develop.
Left: Ryleigh Walker
is this year’s Heart
Walk Ambassador at
the First Coast Heart
Walk on Sept. 17.
She was advised
to terminate the
pregnancy, but she
and her husband,
Craig, refused.
Instead, she
researched the
condition and went
to see pediatric cardiologists at Wolfsons
Children’s Hospital, who knew how to
fix it.
Ryleigh was born full term, at 6
pounds, 7 ounces, with a team of
specialists there to greet her. At a
week old, she underwent an 11 hour
operation during which surgeons gave
her an aorta created from donated
human tissue. Since her pulmonary
arteries were also very small, at three
months a balloon was inserted into
them to expand them, but with minimal
success. She also has defective heart
valves which will need to be repaired
when she gets older.
The Walkers were warned that
children living with conditions like
Ryleigh’s usually have low energy, “but
that’s never been the case with her,” Lee
Ann says.
Now 4, she is a bundle of energy, and
always has been.
“She’s always been a happy girl and
she’s a really smart girl,” her 9-year old
brother, Cael, says one recent day as his
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