Carley 's Story - Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH)

Carley was born June 8th, 2013. It was a normal uncomplicated pregnancy, all ultrasounds appeared normal. She was born natural birth with no complications and APGAR scores were all normal at birth. She had high blood pressure, and was thought to have coarctation of the aorta. We were shipped to see a cardiologist, all came back clear. We went home.

However, Carley was not eating normally....she was hardly drinking enough formula to survive (I desperately wanted to breast feed but was not producing whatsoever). After 2 weeks of continuous doctors appointments, specialist appointments checking for any abnormalities that would cause her to not eat everyone was at a loss. We were scheduled to go in to have a feeding tube inserted on a Thursday as we had no answers and since she was born at only 4.5 lbs they thought maybe a feeding tube would give her a chance to catch on.

However, Wednesday night she screamed all night in pain, she was not really a cryer normally so I immediately called her pediatrician at 7AM and took her in. Her oxygen levels were in the 60’s and we then found out she had CDH at 17 days old.

She was shipped to Lubbock, TX via helicopter and went into surgery with Dr. Goldthorne immediately for repair. The hernia had been undiagnosed because since birth she had no organs up, but that night her intestines and partial liver went up into the chest cavity and collapsed her lungs and sandwiched her heart. Before her repair we were told that with her condition especially being undiagnosed for over 2 weeks, she only had a 20% chance of survival.

Our sweet girl went through surgery, kicked CDHs booty, and with very few other complications was discharged from the NICU only 3 short weeks later with no oxygen, no medications, only follow up appointments.

Carley is now a wonderful, smart, sweet and caring 6 year old. She is in the 1st grade, she is testing as a 2nd grader, reading and spelling at a 3rd grade level. She plays Softball, does gymnastics, and is a Cheerleader.