Newborn With Heart Condition Gets To Go Home For Christmas

DENVER (CBS4) - A couple from Wyoming was able to enjoy Christmas at home after their newborn baby had spent the last few weeks at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children.

During a regular checkup, Pauline Chavez's doctor noticed her unborn baby's heart appeared enlarged. She was sent to the Denver hospital, where a rare cardiac condition called anomalous pulmonary venous was detected in which the veins from the lungs do not drain back to the heart.

Immediately after her birth Dec. 10, little Shoni underwent cardiac surgery.

"I was just really scared," said Chavez.

"These babies can be very critically ill after they are born, this can be one of the few true surgical emergencies in pediatric cardiology," Dr. Michael Pettersen, pediatric cardiologist, said. "This is a very challenging diagnosis to make prenatally."

The hospital said this condition is rarely identified with prenatal imaging.

"So there was obstruction of blood flow that is a very critical condition for the babies and so our challenge as a surgery team is to connect those pulmonary veins to the heart directly like they should have been in the first place," said Rocky Mountain Pediatric heart surgeon Dr. Steve Leon.

"Happy that she's doing really good and that she recovered so fast from surgery," Chavez said of her baby. "Just to see her and see her move around and open her eyes and she's okay."