Twin Baby Born With One Lung Defies Odds And Joins Sister At Home After Lengthy Hospitalization

Aug 31, 2022 by apost team

Bringing a baby home from the hospital is typically a grand, heartwarming affair. The little one gets to see their home for the first time and family members are usually there to share the moment. Joshua and Karla Valliere brought their twins Olivia and Charlotte home from the hospital after they were born in December 2021. 

However, a few weeks later, one of the twins, Charlotte, began experiencing breathing problems and had to be readmitted to the hospital. The nightmare scenario resulted in a heart-wrenching six-month stay at a San Diego hospital for the newborn after she was diagnosed with a rare condition. 

Little Charlotte had been born with only 1 lung. Her mother explained the discovery of the not-initially-life-threatening condition at birth: "Her one lung grew like 1.5 sizes, so it was compensating for the lack of the second one. So (her doctors) did run all the studies. She was totally fine — oxygenation, everything 100%, so we were cleared to go after four days in the hospital." 

The family had taken the twins home. "It was six weeks at home — total bliss. Everything was great ... and all of a sudden she started having breathing problems," recalled Valliere. Then Charlotte's health took a turn and she was quickly admitted to California's Rady Children's Hospital in January 2022 and placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO.) The chief of the pediatric otolaryngology division at Rady, Dr. Matthew Brigger, was one of the medical professionals caring for Charlotte.  

The baby was diagnosed with tracheal stenosis and complete tracheal rings, which effectively meant that her windpipe (or trachea) was abnormal. Additionally, Charlotte had blood vessels wrapped around her windpipe. These birth defects lead to her breathing issues.

Explaining this diagnosis further, Brigger said: "This set of anomalies, with the single lung, with the way the aorta was wrapped around the trachea itself and the trachea being this narrow, is actually fairly rare." He continued, explaining how this condition affected their decisions on how to proceed with care: "We knew that she had a critical airway that if anything were to progress, trying to keep her intubated, that was gonna potentially injure the airway and give us more difficulty in repairing it. So the ECMO was sort of a bridge to surgery." Little Charlotte was not yet big enough to undergo said surgery. 

"Initially I (told the Vallieres), 'Well, if we can get through surgery, I'm gonna give her 50-50," Brigger continued. "(But) I'm thinking more 20% of getting through surgery at the time, just knowing how much that we had to go through." The prognosis seemed to be guarded, but baby Charlotte didn't shy away from the fight. "Fortunately, Charlotte's a fighter and we got to do the surgery. She sailed through surgery," Brigger said of his patient. 

Remembering the hospitalization, Charlotte's mother said: "The thing that ... I believe got us through was her. She never gave any sign of weakness." In total, Charlotte spent 185 days in the hospital before finally being discharged in August 2022. "It was just a lot of emotions and it was just a roller coaster. But now we have them together, so it's worth it," she added. 

With Charlotte home, the Vallieres set up a GoFundMe to help care for their brave little fighter. 

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What are your memories of bringing your baby home? Let us know — and be sure to pass this article on to friends, family and fellow PICU graduates!