Couple Brings Newborn Baby Home For Christmas After Cardiac Surgery

DENVER (CBS4) - A couple from Wyoming is expected to take their newborn baby, who spent the last few weeks at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, home just in time for Christmas.

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

After her birth Dec. 10, little Shoni underwent cardiac surgery.

"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.

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

"Happy that she's doing really good and that she recovered so fast from surgery," Chavez said of her baby.