12-year-old gifted new heart, released from hospital on her birthday
Published at | Updated atRIGBY– It was 108 days of anticipation from the time a Rigby girl was placed on the donor list for a new heart until she got the phone call that changed her life.
“It was about 4:30 in the morning on July 13,” father Chad Martin said. “Right at first it was a shock and they asked the question, ‘Do you want to accept it? and so we said, ‘Well yes.'”
So 12-year-old Shalese Martin and her family packed up and drove four hours from their home in Idaho to the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.
“I don’t think we really had time to think about it a whole lot until we were on the road,” Chad said. “(Shalese) seemed at peace.”
Soon after arriving she was placed into surgery and underwent a 12-hour heart transplant procedure.
“I just didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Shalese Martin said.
It had been a rocky journey for Shalese leading up to her necessary heart transplant, something she and her family weren’t sure would ever happen.
Shalese was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, or HLHS. It’s a rare congenital heart defect where the left side of the heart is underdeveloped.
“I had three surgeries when I was a baby, and a valve replacement when I was about eight,” Shalese said.
Katie Martin, Shalese’s mother, said when Shalese was born she and Chad were given options on how to treat her heart defect.
“We could do either a three-stage surgery where, just as she grew she could withstand more surgeries, we could do nothing and take her home and do comfort care until she passed, or we could have put her on a transplant list at that point,” Katie said.
They chose the first option. Katie said after her daughter’s three initial surgeries doctors were hopeful that she wouldn’t need more. But eventually complications arose and Shalese’s valves started to leak. Over time the leak in one of her valves became worse than the other.
“Her valve was leaking so bad that we needed to do something to intervene because her condition was deteriorating,” Katie said.
At the age of eight she received a much needed valve replacement. Because of the surgery she and her family were able to buy some time before the suggestion of a heart transplant.
“She improved. Her color was better and her energy was better,” Katie said.
But the treatments proved only a temporary solution.
After about two years her condition began to deteriorate again and the leak in her other valve began to increase. Doctors counseled the Martins that a heart transplant would be the best option for Shalese. She was placed on the donor list in March.
“For us to hear transplant again was kind of a shocker. We were told that if she did the three-stage surgery she wouldn’t be a candidate, it would be too high risk,” Katie said.
For the Martins they knew the option of a heart transplant wouldn’t just affect their family.
“It was kind of a battle as she was on the list, because we knew for her to get a heart what that meant for another family,” Chad said. “Just the gratitude that we have for a family that went through probably the worst thing that they’ve ever gone through in their life.”
“Just the idea of that was always hard on a mother’s heart to hear,” Katie said.
After Shalese’s extensive surgery it still wasn’t a walk in the park. At one point her parents questioned if she would survive post surgery.
“Her kidneys had failed, she was on dialysis, and her lungs had collapsed so she was still intubated, she had fevers,” Katie said, along with other medical complications.
As family, friends and strangers prayed and fasted for Shalese, her health began to drastically improve, Chad said.
“As a family we had a fast on a Sunday and that’s when she was not doing well,” Chad said. “We (also) had hundreds of people fasting with us. The next Monday everything turned around, she started loosing machines on a regular basis. On Tuesday, she got out of the ICU. Over a week later, she was released from the hospital.”
On Aug. 4 — her 12th birthday — Shalese was released from the hospital.
“We got to walk out of the hospital doors as a family and it was a great feeling,” Katie said.
On Oct. 15, she was able to return to her home in Rigby. Family, neighbors, law enforcement, and fire and emergency medical services all took part in giving Shalese a warm welcome home. Emergency personal escorted the Martin car to their home, as friends and neighbors held signs excited for her return.
“Just having everyone together again… there’s something about being together and being home that was just wonderful,” Chad said.