Charlotte's story 

Watch Charlotte's 2009 Miracle Kid video (WTAJ)

In 2006, Charlotte was like every other 3 month old.

At least, that’s what everyone thought.

 “She really didn’t show any symptoms at all.  A child with her condition should have had obvious signs, and she had none,” her mother, Kim, says.  “The only thing her pediatrician noticed was that she had a rapid heartbeat.”

Thinking he’d rather err on the side of caution, the pediatrician sent Charlotte for more tests.  One of those tests, an electrocardiogram (EKG), showed possible cause for concern, and an appointment was scheduled with Geisinger pediatric cardiologist Fareed Ahmad, MD, at the Janet Weis Children’s Hospital Pediatric Specialty Services office in Altoona.

 “When she arrived, we immediately wanted to send Charlotte to Danville via the Life Flight helicopter.  Her condition was that serious,” Dr. Ahmad remembers of that first appointment. “We discovered a murmur on top of the rapid heartbeat, and it appeared that she had an enlarged heart and compressed left heart chambers.”

Kim and her husband, Bryan, were able to convince Dr. Ahmad that they could drive their daughter – the infant who had never been away from them – to Geisinger’s Janet Weis Children’s Hospital, where the diagnosis was confirmed in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).

Young Charlotte had seemed completely healthy, but she was suffering from a serious heart condition, Cortriatriatum. 

“Cortriatrium is a rare heart defect that makes up only one-tenth of a percent of all congenital cardiac malformations,” explains Dr. Ahmad.  “In this anomaly, the left atrium is divided into two chambers, separated by a diaphragm with a little opening that does not allow effective communication between the chambers.  Her two pulmonary veins were draining to right atrium, and that was resulting in significant right chambers enlargement.”

Fortunately, a separate defect – a still-open duct that normally would have closed after birth – was helping the blood flow, essentially saving her life.  But the right side of her heart was continuing to expand.

“The right side of the heart was doing the majority of the work, and it was overloaded,” explains Director of Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery Kamal Pourmoghadam, MD.  “She already was experiencing congestive heart failure when she arrived, so it was vital that she have surgery sooner rather than later.”

 “It was a total shock to go from having a seemingly healthy baby to learning she had a life-threatening problem that would need immediate surgery,” Kim says. 

Charlotte still showed no signs of her condition, but with each passing day, her health was deteriorating.  If left untreated, she would likely not survive beyond her six-month birthday or, at best, 1 year.  Surgery was scheduled for Friday, only three days after the family arrived at the hospital.  She was monitored in the PICU until then.

“The surgery really was a team effort that started with the diagnosis at the outreach clinic,” Dr. Pourmoghadam says.  “From there, it required the sedation team, specialized nurses and assistants for the six-hour surgery.”

“That’s when your mind starts thinking the awful thoughts that you’ve tried to resist and put out of your mind for so long,” Kim remembers of that long wait, adding that the visual therapy of Janet Weis Children’s Hospital – being able to look out at the trees and other scenery near the hospital – helped to calm her as much as possible.

Kim and Bryan also had a strong support system with family members by their side – and even more support back home.  A network of friends, family members and neighbors were saying prayers for their young daughter.  And they felt that with the doctors, nurses and staff at Janet Weis Children’s Hospital, both they and Charlotte were in the best hands possible.

“Everyone – whether it was the staff or nurses – they really were not just caring for Charlotte, but for all of us,” Kim says.

“She had great support from her family, and it was a pleasure to tell them the surgery was successful.  I knew they would do their best to help her in the recovery phase,” Dr. Pourmoghadam remembers.

It wasn’t long before Charlotte was back to the business of being a thriving infant.

 “I think it was the next day that she was smiling and giggling as they took the tubes out of her nose,” Kim remembers, adding that the entire recovery process went smoothly.

So smoothly, in fact, that Charlotte was able to go home less than a week after her surgery.  There was a follow-up appointment back in Danville a week after she left the hospital, then another follow-up a few months later in the Altoona office.  Now it’s just once a year for those appointments, and Charlotte – today, a happy toddler who loves to play with her new sister, Cierra – faces no restrictions.  The exclamation-point scar on her chest is even fading.

“I don’t know how in this situation you could say, ‘we felt blessed,’” Kim says. “But we truly felt fortunate that it was a correctable problem. …  The capabilities of modern medicine are amazing.  Had this been years ago, we wouldn’t have Charlotte right now.”