Kalina Joy Michel was diagnosed prenataly at 18wks with a Complete Atrioventricular Septal Defect or AVSD. Basically her heart had a large opening between the top two atriums and lower two ventricals and also a cleft mitral valve. Those are signifcant problems that required open heart surgery, just not immediately. She was born via a planned c-section on 3/2/09 at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital.  We had planned on being in the NICU for 7-10 days immediately after she was born but that never happened. We were so happy that she was strong enough that the extra attention and monitoring was not going to be necessary. TJ literally wheeled her to the NICU, they did a couple tests, and 15 minutes later he was wheeling her out... what a happy feeling that was...

During her time prior to her surgery you would have never known Kali had any problem at all. However, over time her heart would get over worked and cause damage to itself and the lungs. After a few echocardiograms the doctors told us her lower opening actually healed itself, truly amazing. That was the more significant problem and since that healed she then had what is called an Atrial Septal Defect or ASD with a defective valve. Her surgery was then less invasive and less time was needed on the bypass machine now that they did not need to close two holes. The surgery consisted of a patch for the hole (bovine tissue) and some work on her valve. They actually utilized the hole defect to access the cleft valve.

Kali had her open heart surgery on October 26th at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Childrens Hospital, one of the best in the country for pediatric cardiology. She did outstanding. She should be a completely normal girl and able to do anything she wants to do. They do need to monitor her heart rate however, it is a bit lower then they like to see but that may just be how Kali is. They also need to monitor a small leak in her mitral valve that may need to be repaired a few years down the road.  GO KALI!!!