My daughter Sayla is a sassy, spunky, sweet 7

month old. When she was 10 days old she was discovered to have SVT after having a heart rate of well over 250. After being flown to Radys in San Diego and having a stay in their PICU, she was diagnosed with ostium secundum atrial septal defect with a low ejection fraction and came home with two cardiac medications. She’s been seen routinely by her cardiologist and while her ejection fraction has gone up a few percent it is still low and if it has not significantly improved on June 8th she will be referred to the “heart failure clinic.” The hole in the center of her atrial septum has not gotten smaller as is typically does with babies either, meaning open heart surgery and catheterization is more of a possibility.

On July 3rd we took her to her pediatrician for concerns of an ear infection as she had been shrugging. Kind of a silly concern I know, but being a first time parent I’m overly cautious. I showed a video of it to her doctor who became concerned and paged neurology. By this morning we were admitted at Rady’s for a 24 hour EEG. If the results show anything abnormal they’ve informed us next steps will include either an MRI or spinal tap. My husband and I have taken on huge medical expenses from her early medical bills, and while she has insurance now we’ve been having to alternate missing work for her appointments. We are essentially surviving off one full time check and one part time check when we need two full time incomes. We’ve both maxed out our sick and vacation time and have blown through savings and credit cards. The formula shortage has been anything but helpful with the struggle. I’m unsure of how long our hospital stay is this time but if anyone would donate anything to help us stay afloat until she’s she’s out of the hospital it would be so much appreciated.