Charlotte

Baby Charlotte is the youngest of three siblings, and her family was overjoyed to welcome another little one into the world.

Charlotte’s parents started to notice she was sounding raspy, and breathing heavier and louder than their other two children did as newborns. At two weeks old, they took Charlotte to the doctor, but everything seemed normal. However, just a week later, her breathing worsened, she was extremely irritable and not eating well.

Charlotte was taken to an emergency room near her hometown of White City. After about a week, Charlotte wasn’t getting better, so she was airlifted to Saskatchewan’s Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital (JPCH), with the hope that she could be diagnosed and treated.

“Once we got to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), the team immediately took care of us, forcing me to take a rest as I had been awake far too long, as well. The whole team jumped into action for Charlotte – consulting and running various tests,” Charlotte’s mom Whitney said about the first moments of being at JPCH.

Through an echocardiogram, Charlotte was diagnosed with a double aortic arch vascular ring. The young girl was flown to Edmonton before returning to JPCH to recover for the next week.

“We owe so much thanks and gratitude for the swift discovery of a diagnosis and the follow up that needed to take place. JPCH is a top notch facility; it felt like an extended family dedicated to taking care of our child through one of the hardest times of our lives,” Whitney said.

Charlotte still has visits to JPCH for check-ups, but she’s been doing extremely well and has been hitting many milestones. She can crawl, stand-up on her own briefly, walk with some assistance and loves saying ”dada” and “mama”.