Angelica’s Essay

Growing up, children normally have heroes they look up to like Spiderman or Superman, but for me, I was always attracted to the heroine. Some people never get to meet their hero, but I did, and I gave birth to my hero, my heart hero. Our story began in February 2017, when my daughter, Lilyana, was only 4 months old. Coming home from work, we noticed that Lily had become irritable with a fever, and she was taken to the hospital. After the doctor’s ran some tests, it was confirmed that Lily had a UTI. However, the doctors noticed in her X-rays that her heart was enlarged and referred us to a pediatric cardiologist.

We shared our concerns with our families and asked for prayers that her condition was something minor as we attended her first appointment with the pediatric cardiologist. Then the moment came when we were told that Lilyana had a hole in heart, a LARGE HOLE. She was diagnosed with Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) and her only option was open heart surgery. As the cardiologist described her condition and explained the surgery, I froze, and I could not speak. It felt like I was in a dream and inside I was screaming at myself to WAKE UP! My world was falling apart, and I could not breathe as tears rolled down my face.

The morning of her surgery while in the pre-op room, Lilyana was given a tiny pink hospital gown that could fit a teddy bear. As I looked at my daughter, I held back my tears as I wanted to be strong for her. Then the moment came when my husband and I had to hand her over to the surgeons. We hugged her, we kissed her, and we told her that we loved her so much, and that we would be waiting for her “right here.” The curtain closed and my husband and I just held each other, crying, and praying. Her surgery lasted 2 ½ hours and the surgeons were able to close the hole. As soon as she was rolled out of the surgery room, my husband and I kissed her little forehead and said, “mommy and daddy are here.” Lily was hospitalized for 5 days and her recovery was not initially easy as her heart was getting use to not having a hole. Three years have gone by, as well as several follow up appointments, and Lily has been healing and growing beautifully. Some people tell us that we must have been strong parents to have to go through something so difficult. In reality, Lily IS the strong one in our little family. From this experience, we saw how strong our Lily-pad is and how resilient she is as she overcame this huge obstacle. We handed her over to God and the surgeons, and they gave us back our heroine. We wept and she fought, we questioned, and she proved, we prayed and she overcame, she is our heart warrior.