“Boys Come here!” Trevor and I both thought we were in trouble, it was the opposite of that,”I am pregnant”, confessed my mom. Neither Trevor nor me believed her, because I was 9 and he was 11. I had always thought that I was going to be the youngest.  Now as I look back, this is going to be the biggest problem I had ever faced. 

One morning before school my mom was having bad pains in her stomach. I was sitting in class while the teacher was on the phone, she all of a sudden looked like she saw a ghost, she then told me to run and get my brother. I met him in his class and told him, “run it’s mom”. As we ran it was the first time I ever heard my brother say a bad word. We met my grandma in the office, and she filled in the details while we were in the car.  My mom had HELLP syndrome, it is when all of your organs fail due to the pregnancy.

My mom had a C-section, this is a procedure where they surgically remove the baby from the mom. She was supposed to ride in a helicopter to the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Due to the rain the helicopter got grounded, and she had to ride in a private jet instead. The good news was that my mom was alive and recovering well. She was given four bags of platelets, a blood transfusion, and stayed in recovery for a week. My sister arrived at the hospital after the adrenaline rushing plane ride. Her surgery was delayed due to her size. She weighed in at two pounds and 11 ounces.  Her heart was smaller than a walnut, and the surgery was very intricate.

The first time I was able to see her was right before her first heart surgery. A nurse snuck Trevor and I into the hallway where she would be wheeled into surgery. In the first surgery the doctors put a BT shunt into her heart; which opened her left pulmonary artery. They did this  because it was narrow and slowing blood flow. They also cut out her duodenal web, which is extra skin in the intestines. She stayed in the hospital for 6 months, with my mom by her side. She had a g-tube which was a tube sticking out of her belly that went into her stomach. This was how she consumed her food. The second open heart surgery they did a Bilateral Glenn Kowashimi, which redirects blood flow from the heart to the brain. This procedure changed her from a double ventricle to a single ventricle. This means she has one big pump instead of two. The pump generates blood flow to the entire body. The final surgery she was a Fontan which is a conduit connecting blood flow to the lower extremities.  She also had a pacemaker placed. The pacemaker was given to keep her heart rate at a constant pace, because her’s would drop at night.
   

Before my sister, I took many things for granted, like my family, life, and the people around me.Your life can end in a blink of an eye.I have learned to live life to the fullest.  Treat people like they are breathing their last breathe, you may never know if you will see them again. My sister has brought our family so much closer, and stronger than ever before. We cherish her , and love her as much as possible.