"Indiana was born on April 17th, 2019 and within hours, diagnosed with a 7.5 mm conoventricular ventricular septal defect; in simplest terms, a hole in her heart. We were devastated and in shock – she looked so healthy, so happy and yet, there was this. Our entire hospital stay quickly became a revolving door of doctors and specialists, filling our heads with overwhelming information about congenital heart defects. Her pediatric cardiologist said that although small VSDs can close on their own, larger ones usually require open-heart surgery. We were told she would have the operation at 6 months old; Indie ended up having her repair at 3 months. She was borderline congestive heart failure, struggling to eat and breathe, eventually deemed failure to thrive. On July 22nd, surgeons, nurses and other medical personnel from Boston’s Children’s Hospital came to Mass General to operate on Indiana’s tiny heart. Although her type of VSD is typically found in Tetralogy of Fallot, the other three defects associated were not there. They did find a PFO, which is a hole present in the wall between the right and left upper chambers of the heart. Both were patched and she was back to us in the PICU after 5 long hours of waiting. Since the surgery, Indiana has made an amazing recovery and is thriving. She is eating more than she ever has, her struggle to breathe is non existent and we just couldn’t be more thrilled by the turn around. We are incredibly grateful for the team at Mass General and Boston Children’s for saving our daughter’s life. Surgery is not a cure for CHD but she now has a much better chance to live a long and healthy life." @chdandme