Alyssa has heart surgery at 6 days old

November 11 2011

Hi, I am Cherie, On 18 June 2003 my Partner Hayden & I were rushed at midnite from Dunedin - Auckland.

I was induced on the 19th at 9.30pm for a grulling 11 hours i was in labour. At 8:38pm 20th June Our Amazing Alyssa was born with a Peri-cardial Teratoma, she had surgery at 6days old to remove it. (We have no answer to how it formed, But it did end up to be Non-cancerous.) She was in I.C.U for a total of 8hours after the surgery. We had 2 live at the Amazing Heart House for 3wks, quite an experience for your 1st child.

When we finally came home to Dunedin in mid August, we found out she had got scarring on her kidneys from the Urine catherders, Alyssa had weekly visits to Hospital for check-ups for the 1st 6months of her life, havin Alpha-Protein Bloodtests to check the hormone levels.

Now 8 years later Alyssa is a big Sister to 2 Brothers & a sister, Alyssa shows any1 who wants 2 see her Large Chest Scar, she just had a kidney function test which showed the right Kidney is functioning at 13% and the left is working at 87%, it is so sad that her Heart surgery went so well, only to find that her Kidneys were affected which may cause problems later in life.

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