14 Year Old Girl Undergoes Open Heart Surgery and Recovers In Her Annie & Isabel Hospital Gown With a Smile

We are so excited to share this next testimonial with you. This is the story of Katie, a 14 year old teenager, who recently underwent successful open heart surgery. The need for open heart surgery came as quite a surprise to Katie and her family. Here is the story in Katie's mother's words:

"Katie enjoys competitive swimming, snow skiing, water skiing, and other outdoor sports. Her pediatrician's office recently placed a greater emphasis on cardiac health in athletic children. Katie's pediatrician referred her for an ultrasound due to a heart murmur that she'd had since birth, even though doctors had repeatedly concluded that this murmur was "innocent".

No one expected the ultrasound to show that Katie's heart was greatly enlarged. After an MRI, doctors confirmed that Katie had a Sinus Venosus Atrial Septal Defect, a hole between the two top chambers of her heart that also affected the right upper pulmonary vein. Given Katie's athleticism and lack of symptoms, this diagnosis came as a great shock! Within a month, Katie was admitted to Children's Hospital Oakland for open heart surgery under the superior care of Dr. Howard Rosenfeld, her cardiologist, and Dr. Frank Hanley, her surgeon."

A week prior to Katie's surgery, her aunt, Jenny, e-mailed us to purchase one of our gowns for her niece. When we found out that her niece was having open heart surgery, we knew right away that Katie was going to require a hospital gown that would allow for cardiac monitoring.

Did you know that Annie & Isabel hospital gowns can be altered to provide a pocket, called a telemetry pocket, that allows for cardiac monitoring? We have done this on several occasions and this is what it looks like:

front of gown with telemetry pocket in middle

This pocket on the front of the hospital gown will hold a portable cardiac monitor and has a two inch button hole like slit that opens to allow for cardiac monitoring cords to come through.  Anyone in the hospital that has cardiac problems or requires any heart surgery will require heart monitoring.

pocket open to show slit where cords come through

We added the telemetry pocket to Katie's Evelyn designer hospital gown and sent it off.  Jenny was kind enough to let us know when Katie was going to have her surgery and told us she would update us on her progress.  We got an update that we never expected!!  Check back tomorrow for the 2nd part of this great story!