Briella’s Story

“Hello, our names are Aaron and Lillie Moore. We currently have two daughters—one two-year-old and a five-month-old. Our second daughter, Briella, was diagnosed with a heart defect at twenty weeks prenatally. Lillie went in for a routine ultrasound, and we were requested to come back for an echocardiogram a week later. After a cardiologist reviewed her images, we were told Briella had a narrowed aorta and a hole in her heart, also known as a VSD (ventricular septal defect). This resulted in us delivering at Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, four and a half hours from home.

After delivery, our baby underwent extensive testing to better assess her heart outside the womb and determine the best course of treatment. We were told that her aorta was unusable and that she would need a conduit to replace it. Additionally, her mitral valve was slightly narrow. At just one week old, she was ready for surgery and taken back for her procedure.

During surgery, our surgeon informed us that Briella’s VSD was in an abnormal spot, and the planned procedure was too risky because it required cutting very close to important nerves and electrical signals in her heart. This led to his last-choice option: the Norwood procedure. Although the Norwood route was the safest option, Briella faced complications. After the procedure, she went into complete heart block, leaving us with no choice but to wait and see if she would recover.

Thankfully, Briella eventually came out of heart block, but she continues to have arrhythmia issues, requiring her to be on a medication called Ivabradine. Unfortunately, she also suffered vocal cord paralysis during surgery, making it difficult for her to feed by mouth. Despite many attempts, we discovered she was aspirating food into her lungs, making oral feeding unsafe. As a result, she received a G-tube for feeding.

Briella spent the first six weeks of her life in the hospital. Upon discharge, we could only stay at the Ronald McDonald House in Aurora, CO, due to a shunt placed during surgery. Our surgeon explained that the shunt in her heart was too small and unstable for us to return home between surgeries.

Briella is now five months old and recently underwent her second-stage open-heart surgery, called the Glenn procedure. Although our surgeon hoped to perform a bi-ventricular repair this time, it was still not safe enough. Briella continues to function with a single-ventricular system. While she is doing well and can live as a single-ventricular patient, she will eventually require a heart transplant in adulthood.

We have been provided housing at the Ronald McDonald House and are incredibly grateful for the care and support we have received. That being said, we still have a mortgage, a family, and other financial concerns that have been weighing on us. A kind woman we met recommended that we reach out to you, as she shared how you have helped others in situations like ours.

We want to sincerely thank you for everything you have done for families around us. Your generosity truly alleviates stress in these incredibly difficult times.

With gratitude,
The Moore Family 

– A note written by Lillie Carter, Briella’s Mom