Flushing newborn, doctors reunite after life-saving surgery

KATELYN DI SALVO

On her two month birthday, Aleeah Quezada reunited with the doctors who saved her life.

The infant sat wide-eyed in her mother Carolina Osorio’s arms Friday at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Flushing, as people listened to her miraculous story.

During a routine prenatal visit, Osorio, of Flushing, was told by her obstetrician that an abnormality was detected in the baby’s heart by an ultrasound test.

A follow up fetal echocardiogram was performed by Preeta Dhanatwari, director of Cohen’s fetal heart program, and the test revealed the fetus had transposition of the greater arteries, a condition in which the vessel carrying blood to the lungs and the vessel carrying blood to the body are connected to opposite sides of the heart.

“When I looked at Aleeah’s heart, I noticed that her heart was about the size of a U.S. quarter,” Dhanatwari said. “If not corrected, Aleeah could have been born with low oxygen levels in the blood stream.”

Aleeah, born December 29, had open heart surgery on January 2. It was performed by Dr. Vincent Parnell, chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at the medical center.

“Watching my daughter go through this made me appreciate the small things,” said the baby’s father, Carlos Quezada. “This really put things in perspective for me.”

The surgery was successful, and the infant is healing so well that her scar from the procedure is barely visible, her parents said.

“She’s just a normal baby,” Osorio said. “She sleeps well, she eats well, and she screams really loud.”