Update 9/26:

On Saturday 9/20 Maddie was transferred to Cleveland to see if she needed a heart transplant. Today she's FINALLY coming home after first going to Auburn Community Hospital 8/18, being transferred to St Joe's 8/19 for a month and a day and then Cleveland for 6 days! Yay Maddie!!! In her time at Cleveland they decided she did not need to be placed on a heart transplant list and they removed her impella. During her time at St Joe's she got an ICD placed and that will remain in place. She is being sent home on lots of medications to manage her heart condition, in addition to a PICC line that Amy will have to manage until the end of October for her. Maddie will get some home services from a home health nurse for a bit when she gets back home for a little while too. Lastly, she will continue to be closely followed by cardiology with lots of follow up appointments for close monitoring. Happy Friday September 26th!

Update 9/7:

Maddie needed emergency surgery Wed night 9/3 when she became critically ill. The surgery was to implant the impella which was implanted to help her heart pump. She also has had a pericardial effusion which is fluid build up around the heart. During her surgery they also drained this fluid from her heart. She got out of the OR around 3am. Later that day (Thurs, the 4th), she had to go back to the OR to have a chest tube put in on the L side to remove the pulmonary edema (fluid build up in the lungs) she also was experiencing. She was also place back on the ventilator the night of the surgery and came off it that next day. Yesterday, Amy let me know they had to put the feeding tube further down into her intestines to bypass her stomach. Maddie is becoming frustrated as she really wants to eat and walk. Her body is very weak and a general rule we tend to use in the hospital is every day you spend in a hospital bed not moving it takes 2-3 days to regain that strength you lost. So for someone who has gone through everything Maddie has gone through, you can imagine how weak her body is fight with everything it has. In time she will regain strength but it's so much more work than a normal healthy person realizes to even just stand up. Yesterday Maddie was working on standing up with PT with the assist of a device called a steady aid or sit to stand. She must use a mix of leg strength, core strength and upper body strength to help stand/pull herself up. After she got herself up she was able to do a little bend in her knees once and stand back up which was amazing for rebuilding her strength❤️ Please continue to keep sending well wishes her way

Direct update from Amy 8/31:

She had her breathing tube removed 8/30/25. She is still on oxygen. She is alert and receiving meds for anxiety and pain. She started physical therapy 8/30/25. She has fluid on her heart that appeared and had been monitored, there hasn’t been anymore than what they detected. She has to have some fluid drained from her side. She is slowly showing improvements in her lab results. She will receive nutrients etc. through a feeding tube for now. She is showing improvement with urine output and we are hoping she will not need to continue dialysis. A pace maker has been discussed sometime this week. We are praying her heart shows improvements, but if not will have to have pacemaker. Sometimes it’s one step forward , two steps back, but she is a fighter. Constantly continuing hope, faith, and constant prayer for her❤️

Update from Amy 8/28:

Maddie was taken off ECMO, her ventilator has been lowered and she is starting to breathe better on her own. They are trying to lower her level of sedation as well. She had to start dialysis after the initial post and is still on that since her kidneys are not ready to function on their own yet. They are planning to place a pacemaker by the end of next week and hoping to have the breathing tube out by the end of next week as well. As she becomes a little bit more alert the breathing tube in particular has been hard on her. Please continue to keep Maddie and her family in your thoughts, as none of this has been easy on her and definitely not easy for them to see. There is still talk about possibly having to transfer Maddie to another hospital down the road but right now they are focusing on the more immediate tasks at hand.

My name is Rachel Allen and I wanted to start this GoFundMe for Madelynn Maldonado and family while she's currently in the hospital fight infective endocarditis post open heart surgery at only 19 years old. Her surgery that took place on Tues night, 8/19 after she was transferred to St Joe's from Auburn. Maddie has been admitted to Auburn Hospitals ICU Monday and transferred Tuesday for the open heart surgery. Prior to going into the hospital Maddie had been sick for awhile and received various diagnosis including pneumonia, mono, and rheumatoid arthritis to name a few. She went into the hospital after several of her on going symptoms worsened and that's when she was admitted to Auburns ICU and they started to do all sorts of medical tests and determined the cause of what was going on with her and that's when they discovered a large abscess in her heart. Then they started the transfer process to St Joe's. The infection has spread to her entire body but unfortunately her heart took the majority of the hit. The infection has eaten through one of her heart valves and caused a whole in her heart. Her parents, Amy and Louie were told to prepare for the worse; every parents worst nightmare. It's very frustrating for them that it got this bad, when she had been trying to get answers. Maddie made it through the about 6 hour surgery but they kept her in the OR for an extended amount of time to make sure they didn't have to go back in, prior to moving her out. She got back to the ICU early morning. At some point yesterday (Wednesday, 8/20) she was put on ECMO to help her heart and lungs. ECMO takes over the function of the heart and lungs so those organs have the ability to rest; it will help with her blood circulation and remove the carbon dioxide in her blood to keep oxygenated blood circulating. Today, 8,21 Maddie is under going a cardiac catheterization to try to see why the left side of her heart still is not wanting to function. Amy and Louie haven't left Maddie's side, this is taking a toll on them and they could all use some extra support. At this point it is unknown how long they will be out of work, while they stay by their daughters side, while she is fighting for her life.