Mckeely's story starts on August 30th, 1995 at 12:30 in the afternoon.

This very beautiful daughter joined our family. Which already included two older girls Mickenna and Marissa. My husband Lance and I (Jennifer) were thankful that things were okay. Little did we know in a very short time this would all change. What follows is a diary of McKeely's Medical Journey. McKeely came into this world a fighter and she has fought her way though many battles.

McKeely was admitted to the Neborn Intensive Care Unit at 40 minutes old. They admitted her for breathing diffuculties that they thought were due to swallowing amneotic fluid. They said this was normal and not to worry. Looking at this beautiful girl lying in a isolet covered with wires was the most heart breaking experience I though I'd ever go through. After four days in Intensive care we were allowed to take our daughter home. Then five days later I found myself in a emergency room with a infant close to being dead. The nurses keep calling for help and I knew something was wrong when they hooked her up to oxygen and she didn't move when they attempted to draw blood. We were admitted to the Pediatrics Intensive Care Unit. There under the care of the finest physicians and nursing staff we were told McKeely had a very serious heart condition. Not only did she have one defect McKeely had several defects and these physcians needed time to decide what to do.

They stabilized her with prostaglandin and opened her duct to have blood flow to the left side. McKeely was then diagnoised with a Coarctation of the Aorta , A Complete A/V Canal Defect, and A Hypoplastic Left Side of the Heart. This extremely rare defect should have caused us to loose our daughter. But with the help of wonderful physicians and Jesus she is here today.If I were to go into all the test and procedures McKeely has gone through it would take a book or two. We had her tested for everything and we have had 3 catherizations and a total of five open heart surgeries.

McKeely underwent her first surgery at eleven days old. They performed surgery to repair her Aorta. Due to her other heart conditions McKeely did not come of the ventilator until five weeks later. Recovery was slow and we spent most of September and October in the hospital. It was decided in early November that despite all of our attempts McKeely was not growing at all. She had been diagnoised with Reflux and could not eat from a bottle because it took to much work. We were the refered to Dr. Foker and the Fairview University Medical Center. On November 7th McKeely underwent a operation to place a Pumonary Artery Band around her Pulmonary Artery . This surgery was our first success! McKeely was off the Ventilator within 24hrs. Her total recovery time at the University was only 3 days. McKeely then was flown home to spend a week in the hospital to help her learn to eat.

Then in June (7months later) we began preparing for our next surgery. McKeely had out grown the band. Which meant it had become to tight. Her preasures had gotten to high in the chambers of her heart. At this time McKeely was almost one and very active. I think I cried more this time then before because she knew what pain was by now. Dr. Foker told us there was little chance McKeely would survive the operation. Due to her failure to grow he though the only option was a heart lung transplant. We were devastated and told to think about our options. Do we take her home to die? What do we tell her sisters and family? Do we operate? After a sleepless night we decide with Jesus's help to operate.

Signing this consent form was the hardest decision. We had the benifit of knowing what exactly was going on in the operating room because, the University has hired a Clinical nurse to go in and out of the operating. Steve (the clinical nurse) was my life support. He told us exactly when she was on by-pass and off. After 9 hours of surgery Dr.Foker finally appeared. He informed us everthing had gone better then planned and he had decided to attemt a new procedure. This procedure was suppose to force blood over the valve on the left side of her heart. He had also placed another banding on her pulmonary artery. The recovery time that we were told was 10 to 14 days. McKeely was up and ready to play the next morning!

This surprised all of us. There was futher good news within three days the left side had grown to a normal size. We took McKeely home five days latter. We now had to let her heal and take it easy until Dr. Foker was ready to finish this Medical Miracle. Then in November the call came and this was the best and healthiest time for the last surgery. We scheduled our catherization for the 2nd of December and Surgery for the 4th. McKeely's catherizaton did not go well because of poor access . She spent the night in ICU and recovered well but did they have enough veins to access for surgery? The next morning the surgeons found just enough veins to use. McKeely underwent the final stage of this surgery and recovered extremly well.

She was home within five days again! We thought we were home free but we were not. McKeely stopped breathing on us the night we brought her home. The doctors in Sioux Falls prepared her for a flight back to the cities while mom grabbed a few things from home. We were back in the cities less the 24 hours after we left. We ran several test and found that due to swelling around her heart McKeelys ventricles were not firing right. It was decided to place a pacemaker in. On December 13th we went back to the operating room. This time recovery took only four hours! McKeely was eating solid foods the next day ! We were all amazed.

I hope this article will help some other parents in finding a operation for ther child.

Email Dr. John Foker
WWW: www.fairview.org

Jennifer Andersen ( McKeely's Mother)
email at Lance.Andersen@gte.net