A Mom’s Text Message Leads to Life-Changing Heart Surgery for Her 10-Year-Old Daughter (Exclusive)

Celebrating her daughter’s tenth birthday, Demetric Fisher sent a photo message to pediatric cardiologist Dr. Avichal Aggarwal, who treated her daughter when she was a baby. “It occurred to me; if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t have made it to 10,” says Demetric, a 45-year-old social worker in Utica, Miss.

Her daughter, Kaydan Fisher, was born with a congenital heart defect and needed three open-heart surgeries by the time she was 2 years old. Demetric and her husband, Cedric, were told Kaydan would likely need a heart transplant when she was 20 years old.

Aggarwal followed Kaydan until she was six, when he left a hospital in Mississippi to work in Texas. He gave Demetric his cell phone number and told her to stay in touch.

“Kaydan will always be close to my heart,” Aggarwal tells PEOPLE.

Kaydana’s parents and three older siblings were grateful to the doctor for saving her life. “We celebrated every birthday. But as she got older, we knew what we were up against,” says Demetric. “Her aging was a good thing, but it was also a scary thing for us because we knew what was coming.”

Kaydan Fisher.

Courtesy of Demetric Fisher

So when Aggarwal received Demetric’s message on June 20, 2022, he called her that afternoon to tell her about a new procedure he—along with one of her daughter’s heart surgeons—had helped perform. This could actually give patients a whole, healthy heart without the need for a transplant. Aggarwal invited Kaydan to Houston to see if he met the criteria for the procedure.

“I was blown away,” says Demetric. “It was that sign of hope. For her longer lifespan, I knew she would need divine intervention, but I didn’t know exactly how we were going to get there.”

It’s come a long way since Kaydan was diagnosed with double outer right ventricle with multiple great arteries, meaning both great arteries came out of the right side of her heart, and the left side of her heart was very small, explains Aggarwal, who is now affiliated with the Institute of Children’s Heart at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and UTHealth.

In essence, Kaydan was born with half a heart, explains her heart surgeon, Dr. Jorge Salazar, co-director of the Children’s Heart Institute.

“There are maybe a hundred different diagnoses that can be grouped into one diagnosis of half-heart birth,” explains Salazar.

Children born with half a heart can have problems with the liver, intestines, lungs and the heart itself, Aggarwal explains. “It’s a very, very high risk.” Some patients need a heart transplant, some are too sick to be transplant candidates, and some don’t live long enough to receive a transplant.

Demetric Fisher and her daughter Kaydan.

Courtesy of Demetric Fisher

Both Aggarwal and Salazar treated Kaydan as a newborn in Mississippi, and now with this new procedure, they are helping children with half a heart to develop a whole, healthy heart. In the last six years, they have performed about fifty such procedures.

“This is brand new,” Salazar says. “For decades, the only option for children born with half a heart was to make the best of it.”

In a new procedure called biventricular conversion, the smaller heart chamber grows to a normal size by increasing blood flow through the lungs and redirecting blood flow to make the ventricles grow, Aggarwal explains.

And the procedure works.

“Now we’ve proven time and time again that not only does it grow, but it also functions normally,” says Salazar. “You take a child who basically has one hand tied behind his back, by only having half a heart, and you recruit a small part of the heart to make it bigger.”

Kaydan had the procedure on February 8, 2023 and was released from the hospital on Valentine’s Day.

Cedric Fisher and his daughter Kaydan.

Courtesy of Demetric Fisher

A year later, Kaydan is a healthy 11-year-old.

“Kaydan is a very happy example of a child who now has a normal heart, a normal future and no limitations,” says Salazar.

Before the procedure, whenever Kaydan ran and played, her mother worried she would have a heart attack.

“I always lived in fear that it would cause a heart attack,” says her mother.

Now, Kaydan says she doesn’t have to be “so careful.” Kaydan got her first bike for Christmas and now she can ride the slides. He tells PEOPLE he wants to go on even bigger rides.

“She’s brave,” says her mother. “She’s fearless.”

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Source: HIS Education