The Journey
Heaven Sent Hearts was created in honor our daughter and Heart Warrior - Brianna Savannah, born with DORV, VSD, & TGA. Double outlet right ventricle (DORV) a rare congenital heart defect, meaning it’s a condition a baby is born with. In DORV, the pulmonary artery and the aorta — the heart’s two major arteries — both connect to the right ventricle. In addition to a VSD, another heart condition, a ventricular septal defect (VSD), always occurs with DORV. This is a hole in the tissue wall (septum) that normally separates the right and left ventricles. TGA is transposition of the great arteries (TGA)
Most babies with TGA are born with a small hole between their atria, which allows just enough red blood to get to the body to maintain life for a few hours. Typically diagnosed within the first hours after birth, TGA is life threatening, and in order to survive babies need special therapy urgently, which Brianna had within 36 hours of birth- the balloon atrial septostomy. As in the case of our Heart Warrior Brianna, her therapy was not as successful and so we then we told to prepare for complete open-heart repair surgery, this was done just 6 days after her birth and surgery lasted more than 10 hours as performed at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta by Chief Surgeon Dr. E. Dean McKenzie, Sibley Heart Center. It is with great honor that we created this foundation to both share our story and help others along the same or similar journey, Brianna's our Angel, a true Heaven-Sent Heart!
Thank you for your support,
Shelly Bason, Founder
Heaven Sent Hearts Foundation