In April, Monique Goldring decided to take her 8-month-old daughter, Phoenix, off life support and prepared to say goodbye to her first child.
At 7 months old, Phoenix started bleeding profusely from her nose. During the drive to the emergency room she turned blue and stopped breathing.
"I knew that she was gone," Goldring remembered.
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The sudden cardiac arrest left her daughter with significant brain damage, so she stayed in the hospital on life support for nearly a month. Goldring asked doctors to remove the ventilator that helped Phoenix breathe after seeing how "tired" she was, she said.
Doctors told Monique she would only have six hours when they take her off life support.
Monique and the rest of the family prepared for for the worst and started saying their final goodbyes.
"Watch over your mommy in heaven. We will never forget you or your family" a nurse wrote. Even doctors and nurses wrote heartfelt messages for Monique as they prepared to take her off life support.
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"I went home that night. A lot of people will think that's crazy but I was at peace with her," says Monique. "I called the next morning and they said she was up and hanging out."
Those six hours turned into six days then six months, then she was able to celebrate her first birthday this year!
She is continuing to defy the medical odds by living and thriving beyond what many expected.
Now, little Phoenix has rose again for another miracle: she's made it through a successful heart surgery that doctors around the country said was too dangerous to perform.
Goldring says Inova and Children's National initially declined the surgery, fearing that Phoenix wouldn't make it...
...through.
But, Monique kept praying another miracle would come. And it did!
"On November 15, 2019, Phoenix had a successful Glenn procedure and we are no longer living in fear of her outgrowing her shunt," Monique said.
Phoenix was born with a heart defect called double outlet right ventricle, which prevented her heart from properly circulating oxygen around her body on its own.
A series of surgeries are required to fix this and create new pathways for blood flow, including two separate "shunt" surgeries. A shunt is a medical term for a small passage that allows the movement of fluid between parts of the body.
Phoenix remains in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit as she recovers. Doctors also performed a tracheostomy to help with her respiratory issues.
The family has created a gofundme campaign to help with the mounting medical expenses.
