2023 Free Care Fund: Taytum is living her best life after receiving a heart transplant at 9 months old
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Taytum Burns' laugh is infectious. It's hard not to smile around her.
She crawls around at eye level with their dog, plays with her princesses and brings joy to everyone around her -- especially her mom, Lexey, her Dad and brother.
With her lively spirit, you'd never know Taytum spent most of her young life in the hospital.
But just nine days after she was born, doctors at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh discovered that a virus from a common cold got into her bloodstream and attacked her heart.
Taytum developed myocarditis -- inflammation of the heart -- and had to go in the cardiac ICU for three months.
"She went on ECMO, which is pretty much life support. It does the work for your lungs and your heart," mom Lexey Burns said.
Taytum stabilized but needed a heart transplant.
"So she has little scars, these two right here are from her little cannulas that basically just pumped her heart and kept her alive for nine and a half months," Lexey said.
Those nine and a half months weren't easy for Taytum's family either -- going back and forth from their home in Weirton, West Virginia, almost every day.
"I was very pessimistic, always was like, 'She's not going to make it, we're never leaving.' They would always reassure me, 'She's okay, she's doing great, she's gonna live,'" Lexey said.
"I don't think Taytum would honestly be here without that hospital," she added.
"They knew that she needed to live and that I wanted her to live, and she wasn't giving up any hope and glimmer of wanting to be here."
The hospital became a second home, the doctors and nurses like family.
"I don't think I would have made it, but that nursing staff, they made me feel like my daughter was always OK to leave in their hands," said Lexey.
Taytum still eats with a feeding tube and requires a multitude of medicines. But if it weren't for the scars under her shirt bearing witness to all she's endured in her 14 months of life, you'd never know Taytum is a miracle of modern medicine.
"Honestly, I don't know what anyone would do without Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, being that close to it," she said.
"I thank the Lords we have something that amazing so close."
A tiny heart so full of joy just to be alive. Taytum and countless other children just like her are alive and thriving today thanks to UPMC Children's Hospital.
The hospital's Free Care Fund ensures that all children receive the same quality care, regardless of their family's ability to pay. And it's your generous donations that keep that fund going, year after year. So please join us Thursday for the 70th annual Free Care Fund telethon. It's from 3-8 p.m. and we have some special surprises in store to mark this milestone year.
