Support Rilynn's Urgent Heart Surgery

I'm doing this fundraiser for my cousin and her family. Cassie is getting ready for a very serious surgery for her little girl. Below is her story..

On July 24th, Rilynn woke up to get ready for daycare with a fever of 104.8 and vomiting. She was taken immediately to the hospital and was diagnosed with a blood infection from a mosquito bite on her foot. We were told we got her to the hospital in time that they were able to take her straight into surgery and remove an abscess and some tissue from her foot where the infection was at. She was started on IV antibiotics and got to stay at the Sanford Castle for about 4 days before being sent home.

On the day of discharge, the hospitalist wanted to discuss a heart murmur that Rilynn has had since birth. We have always been told it was nothing to be concerned about. That she would "grow" out of it. We discussed Rilynn's history that her providers were aware of this murmur since birth and it is something that has been discussed at every pediatric appointment each year. Including two ICU visits she had both under the age of two due to lung infections from RSV. The hospitalist could not believe no testing had been done on the murmur and did not feel comfortable sending us home till he was able to perform an echo. Of course, we agreed to have the echo completed and waited for the results so we could be discharged.

Rilynn was found to have a complete AVSD or a complete atrioventricular septal defect. This is a heart defect that occurs when there is a large hole in the center of the heart, allowing blood to flow between all four chambers. The cardiologist explained he has never seen this condition in someone Rilynn's age because it is congenital and should have been caught at birth. He stated that typically patients with this condition have to have open heart surgery before the age of 6 months old. Most patients who go undiagnosed do not live past 2-3 years of age. Rilynn is 8. He stated that this is not something they can complete here in Sioux Falls and recommended that we be sent to the University of Wisconsin to have open heart surgery completed.

We are expected to be scheduled for surgery at the beginning of October. They told us that we will need to stay anywhere from 1-2 weeks depending on how Rilynn handles recovery. We have decided to start the GoFundMe to help with any medical and travel expenses. I will also have to take all my leave unpaid unfortunately due to having just recently started at my job and not having a lot of PTO. I also can't use FMLA due to not being there for over a year.

Any help you can offer would be so greatly appreciated. Please donate.. Please share.. and Please pray.