Defying the Odds

BY OLIVIA SELLERS | NWA MEDIA

When Sherri and Dan Austin welcomed their baby girl Callie into the world the night of March 16 of 1993, they were told they had a perfect little girl. Their joy was soon dampened as they were given the news that Callie not only had a heart murmur, but that it was getting worse.

“I could tell by the look on the doctor’s face that something was seriously wrong,” Sherri Austin said.

Arrangements were made to transport Callie to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock and by the time her parents arrived, Callie had already been diagnosed with dextrocardia, ventricular inversion, transposition of the great arteries, ventricular septal defect, subpulmonic stenosis and arrhythmia.

Because she was so small, the doctors wanted to wait until her heart was larger before performing surgery. At 2-years-old, Callie had the hole in her heart closed and her pulimary valve opened, which caused complete heart block. Complete heart block is a condi- tion in which the heart’s electrical signal can not pass from the upper to the lower chambers. Because Callie’s heart could not regulate itself, she had a pacemaker put in 10 days later. Since that time, she has had three additional pacemakers.

Because of the number of conditions in Callie’s heart, doctors have never been able to give her a prediction of what her future will look like.

“It’s so uncommon to have all these conditions in one heart that the doctors have never been able to say what her prognosis will be in five years,” Sherri said.

Due to increasing heart arrhythmia, then 17-year-old Callie had to have a de- fibrillator, as well as a pacemaker surgi- cally implanted in her heart in December of last year. Her doctors estimate that in one to five years, she will be a candidate for a heart transplant.

“She’s always defied the odds and done really well, so we are hoping that it’s closer to the five year mark,” Sherri said.

Now a senior at Fayetteville High School, Callie will graduate in May and will attend cosmetology school.

Sherri said that it’s important that the public realizes that heart disease is not something that just affects older people.

“Look at Callie–she’s one of the many faces of heart disease,” she said.

Sherri wants people to see Callie as a survivor, not a victim.

“Callie will not let heart disease define her,” she said.