Mae's open-heart surgery

When Emily and Brian were 20 weeks pregnant with their daughter Mae, they discovered she had congenital heart defects. Mae’s heart improved during the remainder of the pregnancy, but after she was born her doctors determined she would still need surgery.

Just after turning 2 months old, Mae stopped developing like a healthy baby. She underwent open-heart surgery at Children’s Wisconsin’s Herma Heart Institute to fix the holes in her heart. Mae’s father Brian remembers that time, saying, “I just trusted the doctors throughout Mae’s first few months of life, and it all worked out.”

Now 9 months old, Mae receives care from our Neurodevelopmental Follow-up Program. Kids with congenital heart disease are at greater risk for developmental challenges. Our Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Follow-up Program was the first of its kind in the nation and is designed to evaluate and manage the developmental progress for children living with heart disease in order to maximize their quality of life.

Over the next three years, Mae will continue to meet with a team of therapists and nurses to evaluate her cognitive, speech, gross and fine motor skills. We are determined to see kids like Mae thrive—and we can’t do it alone.