Survivor

Rann student overcomes the odds and three heart surgeries

Published Thursday, May 1, 2008

By Chris Butler

The little girl who attends kindergarten at Rann Elementary School is no different than most others her age.

Kylie Raymond, 6, loves to play with dolls, visit pet shops, watch "Alvin and the Chipmunks" on DVD every night and can't wait to go fishing with her daddy this summer.

The only thing that makes Kylie different on the outside is the large scar on her chest, the result of three heart surgeries. Kylie was no more than a few hours old when doctors realized she had a condition known as "blue-baby syndrome" and needed immediate surgery.

Blood flowed through her heart, but not her pulmonary valve, and that kept her from receiving oxygen to her lungs, said Kylie's mother, Saree.

The odds of Kylie surviving the surgery were slim. Doctors told her parents, who were living in Memphis at the time, that she only had a 50-50 chance and arranged for a helicopter to careflight her to a hospital in Nashville.

Her mother never had an opportunity to hold her daughter before doctors rushed her away.

"We had to drive there not knowing if she had made it or not. It was definitely scary," she said.

Kylie's father, Acie, said it was "one of the worst feelings" imaginable and more problems were coming.

"We called the hospital while we were on the road, and they told us they didn't even know who she was. We didn't know she was really at the hospital until we got there and found her," he said.

Doctors inserted a shunt that opened blood flow to her lungs and repaired her pulmonary valve. Saree and her husband have since relocated to Wise County, close to their families.

A second surgery followed when Kylie was only 13 months old.

Kylie now goes to school at Rann and "can usually do anything any other kid can do," whether it's playing ball or running, Saree said.

Kylie recently returned to school after her third surgery to repair a leaky pulmonary valve.

"She'd go to bed as soon as she got off the school bus in the afternoon because she was so tired from the leaky valve," Saree said, adding doctors will have to conduct open heart surgery on Kylie again in about 10 years to put a new valve in.

Fortunately, the most recent surgery carried only a 3 percent risk.

"We were happy when they told us she only had a 3 percent risk this time," Acie said.

Kasi Elder, Rann's PE coach, held an American Heart Association Jump Rope for Heart at the school in February. Students at the school raised more than $20,000 to go toward research to combat heart disease.

"You could have heard a pin drop when I told the kids that a student here was going to have surgery. Most kids think only old people have bad hearts. One little girl said she had been praying for Kylie every day," Elder said.