Dealing With Pediatric Heart Health As Thousands Of Texas Babies Are Born With Congenital Defects

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) — February is all about heart health and while we focus a lot on adults, we want to take a moment to talk about children. Around 40,000 babies are born in the US each year with a congenital heart defect. That's about one baby every 15 minutes. While it's rare, awareness and research are leading to better outcomes every day.

"She's a little fighter," Aly Lockhart said of her 4-year-old daughter Emerson.

When Aly was 23 weeks pregnant doctors discovered Emerson had a heart defect. Her pulmonary artery and aorta were connected to the right ventricle limiting the flow of oxygen-rich blood to her body.

"The first specialist that we saw asked us when we would like to schedule termination, and that just really wasn't something that my husband and I ever considered," Lockhart told CBS 11 News.

Aly turned to Children's Medical Center for care.

"During my pregnancy it was just a lot of extra monitoring," she said. "We really didn't know exactly how well she would survive after birth."

Emerson was born February 24, 2017, at 36 weeks. She was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. She had to be intubated, but she grew stronger and at three months old Emerson went home, just before the Easter holiday.

"It's a miracle," Lockhart said.

At just four years old, now almost five, Emerson is full of energy and thriving. You'd never know she's already endured three open heart surgeries.

"To see her getting to be a typical 5-year-old and getting to dance on stage, it's incredible," her mother said. "At her Christmas recital she didn't even want me backstage with her."

Lockhart said she's grateful for the research and advancements that have kept her little girl alive, but she knows more needs to be done so that other children like Emerson can have the best chance at a long, healthy life.

According to the Children's Heart Foundation, in the past two decades death rates from congenital heart defects have dropped by 37.5 percent.