It was the middle of the night. The clock showed 2 a.m. when Carrington Carter fell off her bed. She was only 21-months-old, and when her mother, Tonya, picked her up, there were no signs of illness or physical distress. So Carrington, her mother and her father, Lyndell, went back to sleep and got up as normal at 8 a.m. the next morning.

While Tonya was fixing breakfast for her family, Carrington walked in. She was having trouble breathing. “It was like she was having a fainting spell,” her mother recalled. When Carrington’s lips turned blue, the family became hysterical.

Carrington was rushed by ambulance to the emergency room at Tri-Lakes Medical Center in Batesville, Miss., near their home. Emergency physicians in Batesville called Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center in Memphis and learned that Carrington possibly had a heart condition. “We didn’t understand how this could go undetected for almost two years,” Tonya said.
“But we never worried about the why. We’re just thankful that she is still with us.”

About a year before this incident, Tonya had taken her daughter to the pediatrician to check Carrington’s breathing. “Within only minutes of playing, she would be out of breath and would come to me to pick her up and relieve her,” Tonya explained.

Carrington, like many children with breathing difficulty, had been diagnosed with asthma and was taking Albuterol for treatment.

In looking back, Tonya notes that the only thing unusual about Carrington had been her nighttime crying. “She was born eight pounds, a normal, healthy baby, but she would cry all night long.”

On the morning of April 12, 2004, Carrington was air transported to Memphis by Pedi-Flite, Le Bonheur’s medical helicopter transport service. In 20 minutes, she was at Le Bonheur where physicians discovered a hole in her heart. While Tonya and Lyndell followed behind in their car, Le Bonheur Pedi-Flite technicians took complete care of Carrington. She was panic-stricken, as any little baby would be, from the loud noise of the helicopter and by all the strange people who surrounded her. Carrington found comfort with her favorite Barbie blanket, which technicians allowed on board.

Carrington was admitted to Le Bonheur and treated for pulmonary atresia by Dr. Rush Waller, Le Bonheur’s Chief of Medicine and Medical Director of Le Bonheur’s Catheterization Lab. This is a rare congenital heart defect in which the pulmonary valve does not develop. Four days later she was released following a heart catherization.

Carrington returned to Le Bonheur on May 10 for a pulmonary valve implant. This open-heart surgery was performed by Dr. Christian Gilbert, one of two of Le Bonheur’s pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons.

“We were terrified,” recalls Tonya. “We’re so thankful for all the doctors and are so grateful for all her care takers. We had never been in such a busy and large hospital before. This was reality and we were experiencing all this for the first time. Le Bonheur made us feel so comfortable, with lots of encouraging words and support.”

Eight days later, Carrington was back home in Batesville, begging her parents to let her ride her tricycle.

Since then, Carrington, who turns 4 in July, has received several additional heart procedures. And on December 1, 2005, she was the first Le Bonheur patient to receive a CardioSEAL® implant to correct her ventricular septal defect (VSD), a hole between the lower chambers of the right and left ventricles of the heart. Dr. Waller performed this procedure.

Through the new CardioSEAL procedure, pediatric cardiologists at Le Bonheur have expanded their ability to mend a hole in a child’s heart without opening the chest or entering the operating room. Before such devices became available, patients with VSDs required open-heart surgery. When Carrington received open-heart surgery to repair another heart defect in May of 2004, the CardioSEAL was unavailable at Le Bonheur. Carrington is the first Le Bonheur cardiac patient to receive a CardioSEAL implant.

“Dr. Waller explained everything to us before the procedure,” said Lyndell. “It was a relief to know there was another option to mend her heart without having to open up her chest again. We knew this was Dr. Waller’s first case, and we knew the risks. We just put her care in Dr. Waller’s hands.”

The day after her surgery, Carrington was playing with her dolls and sweeping her hospital room with a toy dust mop. By December 2, “Baby Doll,” as her family calls her, was on her way home to get ready for Santa’s upcoming visit.

“What seemed to be a complicated and scary procedure was done in just one day,” says Tonya. “Who would have ever thought you could have your heart operated on one day and then go home the next?”

The CardioSEAL implantation procedure is yet another example of the constant cutting edge advances in Le Bonheur’s Cardiac program. Through the work of cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Chris Gilbert and Dr. Jeff Myers, Le Bonheur’s cardiothoracic surgery chief ,he team is able to perform procedures that were not previously offered at Le Bonheur.

“We have a program here that parents need to know is among the best in the country, and we’re getting better every day,” said Dr. Myers. “Carrington’s procedure exemplifies the true benefits of performing less invasive surgeries - if we don’t have to operate on a child, then we won’t. It’s just what’s best for the child - and that’s always what we will do.”

Today, Carrington rides her tricycle and takes weekly gymnastics classes.

A smart, caring child, who loves to give things away, Carrington has boundless enthusiasm for “dressing up.” Unaffected by the scars from her surgeries, she remains confident in her direction. She sings. She dances. She’s a Disney-esque princess.

Before her most recent surgery, Carrington selected a pair of play high heels, play make up and a jeweled “crown” from Le Bonheur’s Bunny Room. Having been named Valentine Princess at her school this year, and winning the 2005 Central Mississippi Magnolia Pageant in Grenada, Miss. for girls ages 2-3, this aspiring young actress, model and “princess,” is already well on her way to stardom.

By Kini Kedigh Plumlee, Le Bonheur Magazine Editor

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