LITTLE ROCK (KTHV)--There is a small group of people in Little Rock, AR, who, along with Arkansas Children's Hospital, have worked for the past year to bring a 2 and a half-year-old Haitian girl to the U.S. to have heart surgery.
It's a final checkup for Leika Jean-Jaques at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Her mom is Marie Junie Durant. Through the help of a translator says she's happy her little girl is now well, "Muy bien". The translator says "She's fine."
But it hasn't been an easy journey for the two, who've traveled here from Haiti, with the help of Nurse practitioner DeeAnn Martin, who met them in 2009 while on a medical missionary trip. Martin says, "She came to me and said my baby has a heart defect and needs surgery."
DeeAnn exhausted all resources to help the little girl--but to no avail. It would take almost 3-years, but it finally paid off. Doctors at Children's confirmed what the mom was told in Haiti, that Leika, had a hole in her heart.
Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Tom Collins says, "Ventricular septal defect is a hole between the two main pumping chambers of the heart, that pumps blood to the body."
Only her body wasn't and her heart was pumping an extraordinary amount, so much so, Dr. Collins says, "It was like she was running a marathon her whole life."
Doctors were surprised at the size of the hole too. The heart condition, leaving her weak and stunting her development. Collins says, the almost 3-year old is only the size of a one year old; "That's because the heart is working so hard, just to keep the blood pumping it can't help her body grow."
Surgeons would perform a procedure to close the hole. Dr. Collins says she should be okay. "I expect she'll have a very good quality of life." One that she can now enjoy at her own pace.
While mom and those who've seen her recovery are proud, so is DeeAnn, that the hard work, regardless of the bureaucracy and red tape paid off.
You know you can't change the world, you can't get healthcare to every child who needs it but every once in a while you can get one here and I'm so thankful to be working at a place that will take care of them here.
No word if Leika's condition was genetic. Doctors do know congential heart defects, like hers, occur in development.
She and her mother will stay here for a couple of months and then head back to Haiti.
Congenital heart defects occur in eight out of every 1000 live births.