Our New and Littlest Miracle Kiddo

We are excited to bring you all the story of our newest Miracle Kiddo. Kaeli Nichelle Knapp was born May 11th, 2018 at 9:35am. Before she was even born, her parents found out she had a congenital birth defect called Tetralogy of Fallet with Pulmonary Atresia. They worked with doctors to make a plan for Kaeli, but these plans had to be abandoned when Kaeli was born. She was immediately intubated and spent the first six hours of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) before she was transferred to the pediatric cardiology intensive care unit (PCICU).

Kaeli had her first surgery at just 13 days old. This surgery was supposed to be an easy, routine surgery for someone with her birth defect, but a blood clot had Kaeli fighting for her life. Doctors implemented life-saving methods and she had to be put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) twice that day. The doctors prepared Kaeli's parents for the worst. She would spend four days on ECMO and was only given a ten percent chance of surviving the ECMO.

She won her odds and started on a long road to recovery. Kaeli received full repair surgery on August 14th. This surgery took Kaeli's single ventricle working heart to a normal heart. It was during this surgery the doctors discovered a rare condition which would require a correction later. Kaeli's family spent 123 in the ICU with her and 13 days in inpatient, but Kaeli's battle is just starting. She will face four or five more open heart surgeries as she grows.