Alexa Rae

Sweet Alexa Rae was born April 6th at 9:18am. She was transferred down to the NICU later that evening due to low blood glucose (a blessing in disguise). When they hooked her up to monitors, they found that her oxygen level had dropped and decided to do an echocardiogram where they found she had 5 heart defects. She was also born with only one kidney and a club foot. The one kidney made it difficult for them to do further testing on her heart, because they were afraid to put her into renal failure. Well, after 6 echoes and a cardiac cath, they determined the surgery they thought they could wait on needed to be done right away. Alexa’s heart was beginning to go into heart failure. The first surgery they are doing is open heart to fix her atrial septal defect, her ventricular septal defect, and to place a shunt in lieu of her missing right pulmonary artery. She will later have to have a second open heart surgery to replace the shunt and connect her vessels. They will then worry about fixing her club foot and having a plastic surgeon look at her toes. Our little girl will have a long journey ahead of her and we are not sure how both parents will be able to work and care for Alexa at home. She will hopefully be coming home soon, but she will need close monitoring for months to come. Alexa will be visiting many doctors and specialists frequently. We just can’t wait for Alexa Rae to finally come home and meet her big sister Brooklyn.
Alexa will be blessed to have her mother stay home with her until she can overcome all of these life challenges. That being said, Kristen and I will be starting this fund on behalf of the Mang family as they continue to survive on one income and tackle major medical bills that have already began to bombard the family in three short weeks. We ask that you please spread the word and donate if you are able to. But more importantly, please keep this sweet angel in your thoughts and prayers as she continues to fight. She is our little warrior princess.

Love,
Lauren & Kristen