Aria was nominated three times. One of Aria’s nominators writes: Aria came into the world at 28 weeks weighing 1 lb. and 13 ozs. She was born a micro-preemie, but healthy and screaming! Mom and Dad picked the theme of fairies and dragons for her nursery but her journey has definitely not been a fairytale! Within the first nine weeks of her life, she had three infections and her little body could not fight them off. She was placed on a ventilator at high amounts of oxygen and ended up with severely damaged lungs. Aria’s body needed intense care and she was transferred to a second hospital that could provide more care. A few weeks later, Aria had to have g-tube and tracheostomy surgery. Finally after seven months in the hospital, Aria was able to go home. Aria was happy and thriving at home! Unfortunately, after seven weeks she started experiencing breathing difficulties brought on due to being weaned off an addictive medication. She had to be transported by ambulance and was admitted to her third hospital. After three months in the hospital working to wean Aria off of three addictive medications, the doctors were talking about going home which would be the week before Christmas. One night right after Thanksgiving, Aria went into cardiac arrest. Her heart stopped beating for 30 minutes. Hospital staff tried CPR, but eventually determined they needed to stop. They called a time of death, the chaplain said a few words, and they had a moment of silence. After 5 long, silent, tearful minutes, her nurse, shaking, thought she could see color returning to Aria starting in her chest and spreading outward. She felt for a pulse. She felt a small one, but thought it might be her own heart racing. Another nurse checked. Aria had miraculously started breathing again. Aria was placed in ICU and the first month post-arrest was heavily sedated and we waited to see if we would get our same feisty baby girl back! Five days after her arrest, an MRI of her brain showed swelling and fluid in every area of her brain. We spent Christmas and Aria’s first birthday waiting to see signs of improvement. Late January she was finally waking up and within a few days, we saw her precious smile again and knew she was back. Aria spent 13 of her first 15 months of life in the hospital and was finally able to come home to live with her family! She is 2-1/2 years old now and radiates with love, smiles and happiness! Over this past year, the results of her brain damage from the cardiac arrest have been determined. She has been diagnosed with Stage 5 spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, cortical visual impairment (CVI), and she is still trach, vent, and g-tube dependent. We still believe that Aria deserves her fairytale and work each day to give her simple pleasures to let her know how loved she is!
Heather’s thoughts: Aria is a fluffy bubble of joy. I absolutely loved meeting her. She’s full of smiles and she’s so funny and mischievous. She’s got head control and spent the session swinging her head forward so I’s say “Oh no!!” and she’d silently laugh at us, but it’s a laugh you can feel a mile away. Her tracheotomy tube has two types, the blue one allows her to make some sounds so I was excited to be able to hear her. Mommy put it on and she let out a nice yell and some breathy giggles. She’s absolutely so loved and so much fun. Her perfect curly hair and bright eyes match her personality.
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