ARCOLA - Brooke and Dylan Lawrence are a happily married couple living in Arcola with two daughters. Phoenix is 10 years old and Lyrik is six.
Although they are happy, they have had their challenges.
When Brooke was pregnant with Phoenix, it was normal, the delivery went smoothly and they had a healthy baby girl.
A couple of years later, Brooke became pregnant again and assumed that this pregnancy would be the same. She went for a routine ultrasound in December 2018 when she was around seven months pregnant.
“My baby was measuring small and because I am tall, they wanted to make sure everything was okay,” said Brooke.
Brooke was sent for an in-depth ultrasound and that is when they told Brooke and Dylan about the problems with the baby.
Things took a turn for the worse when the doctor came into the room.
“My world had stopped in its tracks,” said Brooke.
Her baby had a congenital heart condition and lung issues, but while Brooke was pregnant her body kept her baby girl healthy.
“I could not and did not want to believe what he was telling us,” she said. “What did we do so wrong to deserve this or have our baby go through this?”
They were told their baby had double outlet right ventricle (DORV) and ventricular septal defect (VSD), a double outlet right ventricle. Both of the heart’s outlets, the pulmonary artery and the aorta, exited abnormally from the right ventricle. This causes the oxygen-rich and poor blood to mix together before leaving the heart. VSD is a hole in the middle of the heart.
Brooke and Dylan travelled to Saskatoon for an echocardiogram to better assess the condition and how to go forward from there.
On Feb. 5, 2019, Brooke was induced at a Saskatoon hospital, and she knew that when her baby was born, she was going to need open heart surgery soon after her birth.
Baby Lyrik remained in Saskatoon and was given medications for her heart, but this caused problems with her breathing, and a tube was placed to help her breathe. She was airlifted to an Edmonton hospital and at seven days old had her first open heart surgery.
At 10 days, she had another operation on her heart. Her chest was left open to accommodate swelling and a few days later, she was stitched up. She returned to Saskatoon and eventually was able to go home when she was a month old, but not before Lyrik had eight blood transfusions and one antibody transfusion.
In October 2019, when Lyrik was eight months old, another surgery was scheduled for her lungs.
The doctors called this an easy procedure, and it was going to take four hours, but it did not go as planned. The cardiologists went up through Lyrik’s thigh and took several photos that showed the lung was narrower than they expected so there was nothing they could do at the time.
Today Lyrik is six years old and in kindergarten. She loves dancing and tries to be a regular kid.
Lyrik is once again looking at surgery and this will be her fourth. This one is for her lungs and the narrow artery that goes to her heart.
The surgery will take place in Edmonton as the doctors in Saskatoon do not feel qualified if any complications occur.
Brooke said Lyrik is always sick. She has a cold, gets the flu, has a cough and it just keeps going, and then turns into an upper respiratory infection.
Tanya Pongracz is Lyrik’s grandma, and is the manager at the Arcola Gas Station and Convenience Store. She wants to help her daughter and family and is holding a raffle draw to help raise funds to offset expenses for the couple when they travel to Edmonton.
An account has been set up in Lyrik Lawrence’s name at the Arcola Credit Union for those who wish to donate.
There will be more fundraising coming in the future.
“I just want to help as much as I can,” said Pongracz. “The expenses will be high, and we do not know how long she will be there.”
The surgery date has not yet been finalized but they expect it to be within the next couple of months.
