Lyanna Rey: Heart Warrior

With permission, I am starting this GoFundMe for my sister Morgan and her family to help ease the stress and worry associated with medical bills and allow them to focus their love and attention on little Lyanna Rey.  

Morgan and Joe welcomed their beautiful baby girl, Lyanna Rey on Friday, May 11th. Initially all seemed well, but then the nurse noticed that her pulse-ox was reading differently in her foot than in her hand. This is not normal and shortly afterwards a decision was made to fly Lyanna to Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC for an ultrasound of her heart. The ultrasound revealed that Lyanna has a very rare, very serious heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries. Basically, her arteries are attached to the wrong ventricles and she’s not getting enough oxygen throughout her body.  After more tests, the doctors found a few more defects. Lyanna has 2 holes in her heart, the first being between the top two chambers and the other between the bottom two chambers.  The top hole is a blessing in disguise. This is what has been keeping her alive as it is leaking the oxygenated blood to the side of her heart which is flowing throughout her body ensuring at least some oxygenated blood is circulating. The hole between the bottom two chambers causes too much blood flow in the lungs and over time could cause one of the chambers in her heart to develop a lazy pump if it is not closed.  The last known defect is that she has a kink in the pulmonary artery and if that is not fixed, it can restrict blood flow to the right lung.

So far we know that Lyanna needs at least one surgery. The surgeons will be meeting with Morgan and Joe this afternoon to discuss their course of action. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow.

I am hopeful that we can help reduce the burden of medical bills for them during their time of need.  As many of you know, Joe just started a new job a few weeks ago. Thus, there has been a lapse in their permanent health insurance.  While they did get temporary health insurance (Cobra) to cover them during that lapse (until the end of May), we do not know how much of these hefty medical bills that insurance will cover. Their permanent health insurance did kick in on May 1st; however, they have a $6500 deductible before their insurance will cover anything.

If you can’t donate, we just ask that you pray for my sweet niece Lyanna, Morgan, Joe, and big sister Eowyn during this time.  Any prayers or donations are so greatly appreciated.