Why Mackay baby Ariella Gallagher needs open heart surgery

Six-month-old Ariella cannot eat, lay on her tummy for more than 10 seconds or play with her big sister as struggles to breath and begins ‘panting’ due to a heart problem only getting worse.

Six-month-old Mackay baby Ariella 'Ella' Gallagher needs to have open heart surgery to repair two holes in her heart. Picture: Contributed

Six-month-old Ariella ‘Ella’ Gallagher will soon lay on an operating table as surgeons repair her heart which has two large holes and has tripled in size on one side.

For months her parents Simone Gallagher and Angelica Grech have been on high alert knowing at any moment their daughter could suffer a heart attack.

They are hoping her life-saving surgery in coming weeks will give their baby girl a quality of life she has not yet enjoyed as she gets easily exhausted and is entirely tube-fed.

Ms Gallagher said they noticed something was wrong just three days after Ella’s birth in Mackay on September 18 as she struggled to breath and was “almost like panting”.

She said doctors put it down to her being four weeks premature but at Ella’s ensuing one month check-up, they found a loud heart murmur and the family was referred to the Queensland Children’s Hospital.

It was at that October appointment in Brisbane a cardiologist confirmed the cause of the murmur.

“It was a bit of a shock,” Ms Gallagher said.

“We were sent home with the hope that the hole in her heart would heal as she grew.

“Unfortunately this was not the case.”

Mackay parents Angelica Grech and Simone Gallagher with their daughters, six-month-old Ariella and three-year-old Seraphina. Picture: Contributed

The next month, the parents learned the extra strain on their daughter’s heart had stretched the muscle creating a second hole and also damaging pulmonary valves, with the left side of Ella’s heart growing to three times its normal size.

Surgery is now needed to save Ella’s life and give her a chance to meet the milestones of other children her age like tasting food for the first time and sitting up.

Mackay three-year-old Seraphina with her baby sister Ariella who has had a rocky start to life with a hole in her heart developing into two holes. Picture: Contributed

“We can’t feed her a bottle at all, she gets too tired, she just starts panting and is breathless,” Ms Gallagher said.

She and Ms Grech must feed Ella via a nasal tube every two-and-a-half hours and her fatigue means she cannot play with her three year old big sister Seraphina who knows only of the cartoon character of French orphan Madeline having her appendix removed as the framework for what surgery entails.

“So Seraphina just thinks (Ella’s) going to go to hospital and get better but I think it is effecting her,” Ms Gallagher said.

“She often says to me that her heart’s broken too and it needs to get fixed.

“So she’s always reading books and telling her it’s going to be okay.”

Ariella 'Ella' Gallagher has had a difficult start to her young life, suffering from two holes in the heart plus a bout of sepsis requiring her to be admitted to the Mackay Base Hospital in January. Picture: Contributed

Seraphina has already seen her baby sister attended to by numerous doctors and nurses including during Ella’s 11-day in-and-out stay at Mackay Base Hospital in January from a serious sepsis infection.

Ella was then re-admitted via ambulance weeks later after she began violently “shaking and vibrating”, “almost like a seizure”.

Ms Gallagher said the past six months had tested the family both emotionally and financially with five return trips to Brisbane already racking up more than $10,000 in flight and accommodation costs.

The family has now launched a GoFundMe to ease the burden ahead of Ella’s big operation on March 22 and was grateful for any help.

“As parents all we wish for is for Ella to be happy and healthy just like her big sister,” Ms Gallagher said.

You can access the GoFundMe here.

Originally published as Why Mackay baby Ariella Gallagher needs open heart surgery