Meet Kelli, Miracle Child!

The day after Kelli was born, she stopped breathing.  Her mom had to call the nurse for a “code blue.”  A code blue is when a patient undergoes cardiopulmonary arrest or has an unexpected loss of heart function or breathing and consciousness.  For the next week, Kelli spent her time in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.  A month later, Kelli was given a diagnosis of VLCAD (with the gene-mutation of a zebra fish) which stands for “very-long-chain acyl- CoA dehydrogenase deficiency.  VLCAD is a condition that prevents Kelli from converting fats to energy.  Within Kelli’s first year of being diagnosed, she visited Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital 24 times.  Kelli later had a port put in her chest to make her hospital stays a little easier.  An implanted port is a port and a catheter that is used to deliver fluids into the bloodstream.  Because Kelli has a port, she will not need as many needle sticks.

Today, Kelli is able to check her own blood sugar and has her port flushed once a month.  She has been to Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital over 60 times in her life.  She is a rambunctious little girl who loves to be on stage and play with her two younger brothers.

Did you know?

Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital is the fastest growing children’s hospital in the state, touching the lives of almost 110,000 patients each year.

Count down to Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital’s Mediathon with us as we highlight some our patients that will be sharing their story with us live next week on iHeartMedia, WAFB-TV Channel 9, and the Louisiana Business Inc Publications!  To learn more about Mediathon, click here!