Bryce Kelley, a five-year-old who had life-saving heart surgery at four months-old served as the Heart Hero at the Westchester Heart Walk on Saturday, Sept. 23 at Kensico Dam. The Heart Walk Festival opened at 9 a.m. with the Heart Walk starting at 10 a.m.
“The pediatric doctor noticed a heart murmur that wasn’t going away 3 days after Bryce was born which doctors said usually went away in most babies,” said Erin Kelley, Bryce’s mother. “We learned that Bryce was diagnosed with Ventricular Septal Defect and needed surgery because her heart was working
way to hard and she wasn’t gaining weight.”
Ventricular Septal Defect is a birth defect of the heart in which there is a hole in the wall (septum) that separates the two lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart. “Bryce struggled to eat at times because she didn’t seem to have the strength to digest the food, she was either to congested or to tired. She only ate at most 3oz at a time. She spit up a lot when we seemed to over feed her,” said Erin. “During the day she ate around every 2 hrs. and at night around every 3 hrs. She slept a lot after the feeding because it was a lot of work for her heart to work. It was burning a lot of calories because it was pumping very fast.”
On March 20, 2018, Bryce underwent five hours of heart surgery but it wasn’t the traditional open heart surgery. Doctors performed a transverse axillary incision that accessed her heart under her right arm rather than splitting the breastbone. They collapsed her lung and entered her heart where they put a patch to close the hole.
This approach reduced Bryce’s recovery time as she only stayed 2 nights in the hospital (the night after the surgery and then a second night). “The recovery time was amazing, and she was very happy afterwards along with being more alert,” said Erin. Today Bryce is a very happy healthy 5-year-old. She loves music,
arts and crafts, reading, and pretending. She is a very typical lovely child who wants to help everyone and be heard. She loves playing with her 2-year-old brother and has many friends.
Join Bryce and other survivors of heart disease and stroke at the 2023 Westchester Heart Walk. The Heart Walk is sponsored locally by WMCHealth,
New York-Presbyterian and Fujifilm. For more information on the Heart Walk please visit westchesterheartwalk.org.
