Mandy and Dustin Kearney didn’t realize anything might be wrong with their fourth son, Asher, when he was born. Compared to all of the other babies in the nursery, he appeared to be the healthiest.
All of that changed, however, during a routine visit with Asher’s pediatrician in Vernal just days after he was born. Because of a rise in his bilirubin levels, his pediatrician felt something was wrong. She was concerned he wasn’t getting enough blood to his lower extremities. When she tried testing for a heart beat in his legs, she couldn’t find one.
The pediatrician knew surgery had to be performed as soon as possible and immediately scheduled a LifeFlight transport to Primary Children’s.
Mandy joined little Asher in the helicopter while Dustin drove the three hours to Salt Lake City. By the time Dustin arrived at the hospital, Asher had already been scheduled for surgery and Dustin and Mandy were apprised to everything that was going on in his heart.
“When they got here, they did the echocardiogram and they found his bicuspid valve and aortic arch were too small,” Dustin says.
After a couple of days, Asher went into surgery.
“While we were sitting in the waiting room, man that was the roughest day of my life,” Dustin says. “Obviously there is a high possibility that we won’t ever see him again alive, but they kept us knowing that he was okay.”
The surgeons replaced his small valves with larger ones from a donor. After four hours of surgery, Asher’s heart was functioning like a normal heart.
“He’ll always have to see a cardiologist,” Dustin says. “But other than that, he’ll be able to live a pretty normal life.”
“He won’t be the starring quarterback,” Mandy says. “They did tell us that.”
“I don’t care if he is an athlete or not,” Dustin says.
It’s been a couple of weeks since Asher’s surgery and he is doing fine. He has gone home and is recovering nicely.
I can relate to this story because I was born with Coarctation of the aorta and Triscuspid Atresia. I had to have my first surgery when I was only a few weeks old and have had all my surgeries at Primary Children’s and all the Doctors and Nurses there are amazing I would recommend Primary Children’s to everyone I know!