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When we found out we were expecting again we were thrilled. It had worked out just as we had planned. We wanted our children to be 2 years apart. We thought that was perfect. Our GP sent us up to a parinatologist for a level 2 ultrasound just to be on the safe side. On Monday, January 26, 2004 we went to see Dr. Mandsager. We were so excited to find out if we were having a boy or girl. We both thought in our hearts that we were having a girl. The technician began the scan and immediately found that we were having a girl. We were thrilled. She then proceeded to look at the heart. She looked for quite some time and printed many pictures but I did not get concerned because that's why we were there. To make sure that everything was ok. When she finished she said to sit tight and she was going to go show the doctor the pictures and see if he would like to take another look. In a few minutes the doctor returned and introduced himself and then sat to look at our baby girl. He looked for quite some time and then he turned to us and placed his hand on my knee and said "Well",in that one word, my heart fell. I knew that something was wrong with our baby. I began to cry. He explained that she had a very serious heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). I said "What does that mean?" He said that generally the baby does well in the womb but once she was born her heart would not be able to support her without surgery. He explained everything twice because he said that when we got home we might not remember what he said. They scheduled an appointment with a pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Becker, on Friday. That was the longest 5 days, we didn't know if our baby would live or die and we could only cry and hope that our doctor was wrong. We went to see Dr. Becker and he did a fetal echocardiogram. He spent 4 hours with us that day because the baby was in the wrong position so he would scan and then we would walk and then we would do it all over again until he got the look that he needed. He confirmed that she had a Ventricle Septic Defect (VSD), an Atrial Septic Defect (ASD), an enlarged Right upper chamber and a significantly smaller left side which was called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He explained that within a week of birth she would need what is called the Norwood procedure and then another surgery at around 6 months and then one more at 2 years. He explained that this is one of the most serious heart defects that a baby can be born with but that surgeries have really come a long way. She would be in the hospital at least a month after birth depending on if she was born prematurely. We had decided to wait on an amniocentesis until after she was 28 weeks so we knew if something went wrong she could survive outside the womb. The results came back fine from that and we were greatly relieved. We spent the next couple months going to Dr Mandsager every 2 weeks and then in April they decided that I should start coming twice a week. On Tuesdays we would have a non stress test (NST) and on Fridays we would have an ultrasound. On Friday, April 16, we found that her inner sac had ruptured so he decided to do an amnio on the 22nd to see if her lungs were developed and if they were, we would deliver. They were not, so he wanted us to come in on Monday the 26th to have an NST and said we would deliver by the end of that week no matter what. We went in on Monday and sat down to our NST but her heart rate was staying at 130 and would not fluctuate to show that she was reactive, even after stimulation. The PA asked if I had felt much movement and I told her not really much at all that day. They wisked us into the ultrasound room and told the technician not to stimulate the baby because she was under stress. As soon as the technician put the probe on my belly over the heart I knew there was a problem. The heart was doing something that I had not seen it do before. Within seconds she was out the door and came back with the doctor. He took a look and asked the heart rate. I will never forget hearing her say "260". He went immediately to get our cardiologist and came back within a minute or 2 and he looked and they decided we needed to deliver immediately. We got on the elevators at 3:30 to go up to the 4th floor and at 4:08 Vivian Sue Hammer was born. Please go to my journal for the rest of her story.
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