Cody with his sister Alyssa

Children’s Hospital of the
king’s daughters

Special Section: Combined Federal Campaign 2009

A Lucky Heart

By Ridgely Ingersoll
Medical Writer, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters

When Cody Matthew Smith was born on July 9, 2007, his parents, Jessica and Navy Sonar Technician (Surface) 2nd Class Matt Smith of Hampton, had no idea their baby would be born with a rare, life-threatening heart defect.

While Smith was stationed at the Naval Ocean Processing Facility at Dam Neck Annex in Virginia Beach, Jessica received regular prenatal care, including high-resolution ultrasounds. When she developed dangerously high blood pressure in her ninth month and her doctors at the Langley Air Force Base Hospital performed an emergency c-section, they were probably more worried about her health than her baby’s.

Smith and Jessica have two other children, so they knew what to expect in the delivery room. But from the moment of Cody’s birth, nothing played out as the young parents anticipated.

“He looked really gray at birth,” Smith remembered. “And he never pinked up like babies usually do.” Cody didn’t spend any time in the delivery room after he was born. Nurses whisked him right to the nursery. When Smith tried to follow, he was asked to wait outside so they could run some tests. About an hour later, Cody and Jessica were transferred to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth.

Cody spent just enough time at the naval medical center to receive an accurate diagnosis from Navy cardiologist Mike Carr. Instead of pneumonia, Carr said Cody had Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return (TAPVR), which is a rare and very complex heart defect. Carr told the devastated parents that Cody would need immediate open-heart surgery to survive, so Cody was transferred to Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD), the only place in the region that could handle such complex heart conditions.

“That’s when I fell apart,” Jessica said. “I didn’t know if I would ever see my baby again. It was awful. I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.”

CHKD cardiothoracic surgeons agreed that the condition was serious enough to require immediate surgery. Just three hours later after a page came in from the naval medical center, Cody was in the operating room at CHKD connected to the heart-lung machine, a device that adds oxygen to the blood and pumps it to other parts of the body so the heart can be stopped during surgery.

For the next four hours, a team of surgeons worked within the newborn’s tiny chest cavity, first closing the connection that allowed the blood to drain into the liver. After surgery, Cody spent two weeks in the pediatric intensive care unit, where he was monitored closely. “He was surrounded by tubes,” Smith recalled.

But his parents were relieved that their baby was alive and thriving. A week and a day after he was born, Cody was strong enough to breathe without the ventilator, and his mother had her first real opportunity to hold him in her arms. “That was a great feeling,” she said with a smile.

Today, there is little evidence of the drama that surrounded Cody’s birth except for the healing scar on his chest. In the months and years to come, he will be monitored by a pediatric cardiologist, but by all indications today, his blood is circulating normally. Thanks to CHKD, Cody’s cheeks – as well as his future – look rosy.

And that is a gift worth celebrating, his parents say. “We know we’re lucky to have him,” Jessica said. “If it weren’t for CHKD, he wouldn’t be here right now.”

To support Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, designate CFC #68517.