Lifesaving Care for Fiona

Fiona was a week old when her parents noticed her breathing wasn't quite right. She spent a night in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Children's National Hospital, followed by 16 days in our Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). Elizabeth Sherwin, MD, a cardiologist and electrophysiologist, diagnosed Fiona with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. This rare condition causes the heart to beat too fast. Dr. Sherwin performed a cardiac ablation to correct the electrical pathways in Fiona's heart when she was 3 weeks old. This eliminated the risk of life-threatening arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats.

"We had so many questions and fears," says Fiona's dad, Jereme. "But her care team educated us and always gave us their attention. They reassured us that she'd be safe even if we went home to sleep or shower, keeping in touch sometimes all night long. It gave us so much comfort to know that someone else cared about our baby as much as we do."

Since then, Jereme says Fiona has had nothing but glowing checkups. "She is now a chatty 4-year-old who loves to hear the story of how she was a princess born with a heart overcharged with love, and about the special place with wizard-doctors who fixed her with their magic," he says.