An 8-year-old Indiana girl receives a new heart in a real-life Christmas miracle and celebrates the holidays at home after a seven-month hospital stay.
Little Skylyn, who lives in New Albany, was hospitalized in April with what her parents initially thought was respiratory failure and has been at Norton Children's Hospital for 236 days.
Instead, doctors told the family that the girl was in the final stages of heart failure. She spent 201 days waiting for the heart she needed to save her life.
“The hardest thing we've ever experienced in our lives is probably waiting. It's very, very, very hard because you don't know what's going to happen every day,” said Kaylin, Skylin's mother. Williams said. WBPF News.
On November 22nd, the family's patience finally paid off when Skylyn's new heart arrived through a donor.
Always a member of the troupe, Skylyn was back on her feet and walking after just 18 days of recovery following her transplant surgery. I had a new hunger to address everything I was missing during treatment.
“I've been waiting for a very, very long time,” Skylin told local media.
Skylin previously had a temporary heart valve inserted to increase her chances of survival, making her the youngest person in the world to have the device.
“I think it worked extremely well to save her life, to do the transplant,” said Sarah Wilkens, Skylyn's cardiologist.
Skylyn will undergo rehabilitation at Frazier Rehabilitation Institute, and is expected to be completed just in time for Christmas.
“It's given her a better quality of life than I could have ever dreamed of, because when we first got here she was on the brink of death.” Williams told the magazine.
