Avery’s Story
“If it weren’t for the expertise of our Batson cardiologist, we wouldn’t have Avery today.”
Avery is a huge Ole Miss fan!
Avery’s Story, as told by her family:
“Avery wasn’t expected to live to birth due to a large cystic hygroma and various other issues in the womb, and she was diagnosed with Turner Syndrome at around 23 weeks. She overcame the odds and was born during a scheduled delivery in June of 2009. Avery was quickly transported to Batson to await heart surgery due to coarctation of the aorta and had to stay in the NICU on medication for one week. After a successful surgery, she recovered in PICU for several weeks. We were able to go home to our new normal, and while Avery seemed to recover well, we were thrown into many appointments meeting new specialty doctors at Batson.
In her first few months following surgery, Avery also had to enter the heart catheterization lab several times. At around 5 months old, Dr. Ebeid realized she was in serious need of valve replacement surgery. At that time, a surgeon that did her initial surgery refused to do the valve replacement. He was from out of state because Batson didn’t have its own surgical team then. We opted to travel to New York, and we got there just in time to save her life. Avery coded multiple times before the surgery began and was placed on bypass quickly, but after more than 7 hours, the surgery was a success. We stayed in NYC for close to a month to recover.
If it weren’t for the expertise of our Batson cardiologist, we wouldn’t have Avery today. She is also living her best life due to the care of each specialty physician she continues to see. While Avery will have another heart procedure at some point in the near future, we have everything she needs at Batson nowadays to take care of that. Avery also has inactive thyroid, hearing impairment, ear tubes, Celiac’s Disease, IGA Deficiency (which affects her immunity), generalized anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder, and several other things that can make life more complicated; however, she is simply full of joy, determined and inspiring!”
THIS OR THAT: Avery EDITION
Favorite Song: Girl on Fire, by Alicia Keys
Favorite TV Show: Descendants 3
Favorite Food: Pizza
Favorite Color: Pink and red
Favorite Activity: Dancing, gymnastics and swinging
Dream Job: Chef