Everyone Loves Eva

This is Eva, she is 15 months old.  She and her family need some help from anyone that can help financially to get through this difficult time and the unexpected to come. 

On the evening of April 11th, Eva was taken to the ER at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. Her parents, Hope and David, felt that she was breathing funny with a little grunt and low grade fever. Upon arriving at the ER, her respiratory rate was between 70-80 breaths per min (normal is ~30), heart rate was 170-180 beats per min (normal is <120 at rest), and low grade fever. Covid-19 and other viral testing were all negative. Through Initial testing, the doctors found Eva’s left ventricle in her heart was enlarged causing ventricular tachycardia (uncommon in children and very serious). On April 12th, she was officially diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy, with an enlarged left ventricle and the mitral valve is no longer working properly to push blood through her body causing fluid to back up into her lungs creating her difficulty breathing. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a rare condition with only 6 out of 1,000,000 children diagnosed each year. Initially they had to determine if this was caused by a new virus that could possibly be reversed, or was an underlying condition caused by a prior virus or from birth that was undiagnosed. Unfortunately, when reviewing a chest X-ray she had in September 2019 when she had a respiratory virus, they saw her heart was enlarged even back then so that eliminated the chance it was caused by a current virus and that they could reverse this condition. She was started on a medication, Milrinone, which significantly improved her respiratory rate and is currently keeping her from going into cardiac arrest. The doctors told Hope if she had not brought her in when she did, Eva would have gone into cardiac arrest within 24 hours. 

She underwent a cardiac MRI on April 13th and since that procedure her heart rate has come down to 140-150 bpm. She received a blood transfusion on April 14th to get oxygen to all of her organs and give her heart a boost. The doctors installed a pic line on April 15th in order to give medications long term and perform regular blood draws. The blood transfusion yielded very good results and potentially kept her from being placed on a ventilator and heart bypass machine for now. They are currently in the cardiac icu and she is alert, eating, playing, and looks to be returning to her normal self. The doctors say that how she looks on the outside is deceiving from what is truly going on inside - her heart’s ejection fracture, the amount of blood (%) pumped out of the ventricle during each heartbeat, is only 11% (normal 50%) and she is on the cusp of heart failure. 

Patients in Eva’s condition spend over 2 months in the hospital. The options could be: best case scenario - keep her own heart, stabilize her with medications, discharged home with possible IV and oral meds and any time she gets sick she would have to be placed back in the cardiac ICU and could be right back where she is now; being placed with permanent exterior device that pumps her blood for her (L-VAD) and pending a heart transplant; OR worst case scenario- moving directly to a heart transplant. They said there is no better place for her to be in FL than Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital - they are familiar with this condition and do transplants there. They have informed Hope and David that although there is a protocol they are following for the best case scenario, with every bit of information they get that plan can change drastically. In addition, while pending genetic testing results, Hope and David have been instructed to have their other 2 girls, Ella (7) and Emma (2 1/2), tested for this condition.  

At this point the doctors have advised that either Hope or David has to be there at all times because it is too traumatic and stressful to Eva’s heart if she gets upset when they are not there. So now rather than leaving her alone for an hour while one goes home and the other comes, they have to drive their other 2 girls to the hospital 30 min from home and swap drivers. The Covid-19 pandemic makes this even more delicate because they can have no exposure to others who may pass them or the girls the virus and potentially bring it back to Eva which would be catastrophic. That means no grocery store and pharmacy, and no one can watch the other 2 girls for fear of the unknown. 

People have been asking how you can help. Just like many others during these times, Hope, as an independent personal trainer, has been out of work for over a month and David, a master elevator mechanic, was furloughed as of last Thursday (the day before Eva came down with the fever and what they thought was a simple virus). As many of you know this is a stressful time and Eva’s health status compounds that significantly. 

So anything you chip in to help is most appreciated but the big one up until now has been prayers. We have seen so much positive improvement since initiating several prayer chains through family and strangers sharing her story. 

Thank you so much from our entire family.