Meet This Month's Legendairy Little, Ava

Each month we donate a portion of our profits to a child with medical needs through the Legendairy Littles program. 

Ava was born August 2018 via emergency c-section under general anesthesia. Her mom’s water broke at only 31 weeks 4 days, and Ava’s heart rate started crashing within half an hour of being at the Children’s hospital. She had surgery that afternoon and a g-tube placed and another surgery 3 days later. Ava was born without a radius bone in her right arm and Tetralogy of Fallot, DORV, and MAPCAs. She’s considered to have VACTERL association. During her 69 day NICU stay, Ava needed breathing help, 10 blood transfusions, countless scans, and many medications. After only 15 days at home, Ava had a scary episode where her pupils were pinned, she was sucking on her tongue and generally unresponsive. Her mom quickly called 911 and they were transported to the local hospital where the doctors determined that she had a seizure, and would need to be transported back to the NICU. She had critically unstable blood sugar as well as extremely high ammonia levels. She was in the NICU 97 days total and discharged with a strict feeding pump schedule to keep her sugar stable. Ava had open heart surgery 2.5 months later and experienced respiratory failure, had a cath lab, and went through bad withdrawal. 

Just after Ava turned one, she met with neurology to address seizure-like behaviors that were beginning to happen frequently. She was put on seizure medication that helped significantly. Ava learned to walk at 15 months old and hasn’t stopped since. She continues to follow up with a handful of specialists. With all that she goes through, Ava is such an amazing girl with a love for her life and such beautiful big blue eyes. The first part of March her family will be traveling out of state to visit with a specialized surgeon regarding her need for arm surgery.

During the month of March, a portion of all sales will be donated to Ava’s family to help with travel and medical costs for her arm surgery. If you would like to donate directly to her family, their GoFundMe is: https://www.gofundme.com/f/avas-ulnarization-surgery

 

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