Emma

On July 5, 2007 Emma was abandoned shortly after birth in the corridor of her home city’s local hospital. After an unsuccessful search for her parents, she was taken to the local orphanage where she was diagnosed with the heart condition tetrology of fallot and pulmonary atresia. When she first arrived at New Day she was very underdeveloped, weak and quite cyanotic from lack of oxygen. She had her first surgery in November 2007, but she needs additional surgeries once she gets stronger to fully treat her condition. Due to the severity of her heart condition, Emma is a tiny little girl. But she has a big personality, and her cute antics and fierce determination inspire all who meet her.

Emma’s first heart surgery went very smoothly. The surgeon’s felt very positive about the results until about 6:30 p.m. the evening of the surgery. We received a call with the scary news that fluid was seeping out of her chest tube and her blood pressure was dropping quickly. When they called they felt they needed to take her back into surgery to correct the problem. However, they decided to wait a little while and all of a sudden the fluid from the chest tube slowed and her blood pressure stabilized. We were very thankful a couple of hours later to find out that all was well. She did need a blood transfusion because of the loss of blood, but since then, she has been recovering rapidly — even begining to produce urine today, which is a good sign of her restoring health.

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