Helping Hearts for Evalyn

*UPDATE from Mia and Fred (3/2/2023):

We are overwhelmed by the response to this fundraiser and the support shown for Evalyn and our family. We are closing donations since the original goal has been exceeded. Thank you so much for your generosity and kindness. We are a very lucky family to have such a caring community around us. Thank you.❤️

Dakota's best friend, Evalyn, is a strong 12-year-old girl with a contagious smile. She was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot with Absent Pulmonary Valve. This April, Evalyn is scheduled for her third open heart surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital, over five hours from her home.

Evalyn and her family will likely be in Boston for 10 or more days. Between travel, lodging, food, and other necessities, the family is facing a large financial responsibility. I am hoping to use this fundraiser to help ease the burden of these expenses for them.

Background and details: After she was born in respiratory distress, Evalyn was hospitalized for the first 66 days of her life. She underwent her first open heart surgery for her CHD at only 7 weeks old in February 2011 .

About 6 months later when she was 8 months old, Evalyn’s parents, Mia and Fred, found out that Evalyn needed a second open heart surgery. She received a pulmonary valve conduit during this procedure at the same hospital in August 2011.

Approximately one year later, Mia and Fred were told Evalyn would need a third open heart surgery because the conduit was not functioning properly. After seeking further medical opinions, the family traveled far from home to Boston Children’s Hospital for intervention.

The wonderful doctors at Boston were able to perform a much less invasive procedure using cardiac catheterization to place a stent in Evalyn’s existing conduit in December 2012. Mia and Fred were told that should delay the need for surgery for 18-24 months.

Evalyn has been monitored regularly at Boston since then. The 18-24 month time frame came and went, and Evalyn continued to thrive. She seemed to defy the odds with her strength and resiliency. She received another cardiac catheterization at Boston Children’s in November 2019 with a balloon procedure to redilate the stent. She continued to do well.

In December 2022 at a routine cardiology check-up in Boston, the family was informed that it was now necessary to replace Evalyn’s pulmonary valve conduit through open heart surgery. The 18-24 month time frame stretched to 10 years, but the time has come.

Evalyn is scheduled for open heart surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital in April 2023. The cardiac surgery must also be combined with a Pectus Excavatum correction surgery to repair a severe chest wall issue that is impacting her heart.

Evalyn and her parents will travel the 5+ hours to Boston a few days in advance of the surgery date to accommodate the pre-op appointments that are required. While the exact length of hospitalization post-op is not known yet, Evalyn could be hospitalized for 7 days or longer.

Please consider donating to this amazing family. All contributions will be .greatly appreciated. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.