Crystal Young kindly offered to share her story with others who visit Left Heart Matters.

I'm a married 20 y/o. I became preganant with Kaitlyn Nicole and was the happiest person on the face of this earth for the whole nine months. I was NEVER sick, gaining just the right amount of weight, and was the most perfect pregnance my doc. had seen in a while, he said. I was due Sept. 17, but he wanted to induce me early if I got too big. (I'm only 5'3 and normally 100lbs, but was excpecting a 7-8 lbs. baby girl) That wasn't nessecary after my last regular check-up, because he started it then and there, but forgot to tell me to get ready.

The delivery was the most perfect thing of the whole pregnancy. I was, surpisingly, only in labor for 6 hours. But when my water broke, it was colored, but not normal for just a baby in distress. The nurse actually screamed when she saw it, because she had never seen such a thing. Kaitlyn Nicole was born a perfectly healthy 7.4, and 20 1/2 inches long. We were so excited to finally see this "little" one who had us in amazment for hours looking at my huge stomach move, but when she was born, the room suddenly became a rush, and the main thing I remember is not hearing her cry. She was put imediatly into NICU, where she stayed for a day before being transfered to the children's hosptial here in Indianapolis, Indiana. My husband went to the hosptial while I recovered at my home hospital, where he was told of HLHS and that we had some decisions to make, but we had atlest 3 days to make them. We also never knew of Kaitlyn's condition until she was born.

We opt for the srgery, which was done at 14 days old. They lost her almost twice, but were able to revive her. She made it through, they said with flying colors, but after she had finally passed away, I was told that they were shocked she had made it for the 2 months she did. They didn't excpect her to live past a month, if that. We really don't know what happened to make her die, but I'm happy that she is no longer in pain, which I could see she was in alot of it though the tears she finally shed for the first time when she was 20 days old. I love her with all of my heart, but am very happy that she was given the chance to change my life, which she most certainly did.

Good Luck and May God Bless!

Sincerely, Crystal Young