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A seven-month-old girl who has spent nearly her entire life in a hospital room continues to wait for a new heart at Arkansas Children's Hospital.
Her life is in no longer in the hands of doctors, but donors.
Little Amelia Lebert was born with a heart defect that has forced her to undergo six surgeries since birth. But none of those surgeries solved her problem.
This winter, her mother got the bad news.
(Cara Lebert, Amelia's Mother) “She was at home, and she was breathing funny. I brought her in to the cardiologist. He said the only other option we had to save her was a heart transplant.”
That brought the Louisiana family to Arkansas Children's Hospital, where they've been on a transplant list since April 18th.
Cara has watched her daughter grow up in a hospital bed. Amelia’s development has been affected significantly. Even though she's seven months old, she weighs only 11 pounds.
(Lebert) “It's hard. You see it on TV happening to other people. When it happens to you, it turns your world upside down.”
There is hope for Amelia if she gets a new heart soon--and that hope is directly tied to organ donation.
Cara says she never even thought about becoming a donor before Amelia was born. You can bet she is now--and hopes others will become organ donors too.
(Lebert) “Amelia hasn't even had a chance to live with her own heart. Her only chance at life is if someone else donates her loved one's organs and gives her a second chance--and a lot of other people need second chances as well.”
Doctors at Arkansas Children's Hospital have performed heart transplants on infants as young as 7 to 10 days. The survival rate for one year is 90%.
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