Locklyn McFarlin

     Locklyn was born on June 26, 2014. Although she passed all the markers during my pregnancy, I knew immediately she was unique. My OB confirmed this when he told my husband and I that Locklyn had Down syndrome. Due to our beliefs, we had declined genetic testing which would have given us a pre-birth diagnosis.

  When her pediatrician arrived, he heard a heart murmur, so he requested a consult with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Brandon Harden. Through a heart echo, Dr. Harden confirmed that Locklyn had atrioventricular septal defect with a hear murmur. Also known as AVSD for short, this congenital heart defect is where the walls of the heart do not develop completely causing a hole or holes. These holes create a heart that mixes oxygen rich blood with oxygen deprived blood. Because of this defect, Locklyn’s heart had to work harder to get oxygen to her body, and she would require open heart surgery to continue to grow and thrive.

  After months of care by Dr. Harden, the decision was made to schedule the first of two open heart surgeries Locklyn would need. So, in August of 2015, when Locklyn was 13 months old, our family headed to Atlanta for her pre-op appointment. After leaving the appointment and getting supper, we received a call from CHOA telling us to come back immediately for Locklyn to be admitted to the hospital. During the pre-op, it was discovered that Locklyn’s heart defect had put stress on her body causing her to develop pulmonary hypertension with left pulmonary vein stenosis. We were devastated and scared. She could not have the surgery to repair her heart because the pulmonary hypertension had caused new concerns.

  From that time until December 2015, Locklyn was in and out of the hospital going through numerous tests and evaluations. She was put on oxygen around the clock and enteral feedings through and IV as well as medications around the clock. It was a battle to save my daughter and CHOA was there with us every step of the way. I will never forget her heart catheterization results where the doctor evaluated her heart and how to pulmonary hypertension was impacting her body. His news was not good concerning the pulmonary hypertension. We asked if the pulmonary hypertension did not improve how long would we have our precious Locklyn. He said maybe to the age of 4.

  But we did not give up nor did the doctors and staff at CHOA. Her doctors made the decision at one point to keep her hospitalized until they could get her healthy for her first open heart surgery. We could all see the pulmonary hypertension was taking its toll on her body, so the decision was made to go ahead with her first surgery. As Dr. Kanter prepared us for her surgery, which would take place on December 21, 2015, he said it was now or never, and he was very worried about a positive outcome.

  Thanks to the excellent surgeons, doctors, nurses and staff at CHOA, our 2nd Christmas as a family still remains the most special Christmas because Locklyn was on the mend. I will never forget seeing her in the Cardiac ICU right after surgery. She was hooked to all kinds of wires and tubes, and her little foot was tapping to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song we were playing for her. She was a fighter and thank goodness she had CHOA fighting with her.

 Since that time, Locklyn has had a 2nd open heart surgery where miracles were seen as her first heart repair had helped the pulmonary hypertension issues. The team at CHOA has given us our daughter, and she is thriving. She has developed into a bubbly, fun-loving, silly 8 year old who loves to dance and listen to music. We still continue to get great care and support from CHOA, and we know without them we would not have our little miracle!