Parents Share Final Moments With Age 2 Daughter Who Died While Waiting for New Heart
Every expectant mother hopes for the birth of a healthy child. For a Kentucky couple, life for one of their children would begin with a struggle.
Adalynn Rogers was born with a congenital heart defect. The defect was so severe that she began waiting for a heart transplant. But the transplant would never come.
In an attempt to help little Adalynn, doctors implanted a right ventricular assist device, a machine to help her weakened heart pump blood. It worked, for a while.
But there were complications and they led 2-year old Adalynn to the hospital where it was discovered that brain damage had occurred, due to a lack of oxygen. A blood clot had formed because of the implanted device and had traveled to her brain.
Her parents, Justin and Kristi, gathered around the small body of Adalynn, holding her and whispering loving words. Her three siblings were there as well, the sadness visible in their faces.
“I felt Kristi’s unconditional love for Addy and the excruciating pain. It was hard, I could barely hold it together,” said Dabit. “I left with a piece of my heart missing.”
The images are more than the capture of one family’s grief and love for a child lost. The family hopes that they will help create awareness so that other families will not have to say goodbye to their children.
Dabit talked about the need for funding to create a cure for congenital heart defects. The bereaved mother is also advocating for awareness and research.
Kristi posted a link to raise money for research, stating “My hope is for CHD to become a thing of the past so that no other mommy and daddy have to know the pain of losing their baby to something people don’t know exists!”
The goal was for $2,000 to be raised, but in two days generous viewers contributed over $8,000. Baby Addy’s story has touched so many hearts, and many people can get behind this cause.
Hopefully though this family has experienced what no parent should ever have to face, they will be able to bring awareness to the need for organ donors.
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