DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — When Megan Gallagher and her husband, Philip Agostino, found out they were pregnant with their first child, they were overcome with joy.
However, the journey to making sure they delivered a healthy baby was long. At Gallagher's 20-week check-up, her first doctor said her baby would be in hospice until he died.
“It was just really hard to swallow, so we just left thinking our baby was going to die,” said Gallagher.
According to doctors at UPMC, Gallagher’s baby was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which is a birth defect that affects normal blood flow through the heart. After Gallagher's appointment, she decided to seek a second opinion.
She talked with a close friend, a local cardiologist, about their situation. He recommended that the family meet with Sunil Patel, MD, a pediatric cardiologist and adult congenital heart disease specialist at UPMC Harrisburg.
“We found out that the baby had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which means the baby's heart was undeveloped and non-functional, and these kinds of heart defects are complex and require a series of surgeries after birth,” said Dr. Patel.
After a series of tests and time that wasn’t given to the family from their first appointment, the team at UPMC devised a plan that Megan and Philip would move to Pittsburgh a month before Lorenzo was due so that the mom-to-be could be close to the team at UPMC Magee-Women's Hospital.
“We were just in that constant fear every day; it was a fight or flight feeling,” said Gallagher.
Megan and Philip arrived at Magee-Women's Hospital, and on May 7, Lorenzo was born. He was transported to UPMC Children’s for his next stage of care with the team at the Heart Institute.
“He was in this transport incubator, and I could only put my hand in and touch him,” said Gallagher. “He was hooked up to all these wires and machines, and it was a very overwhelming feeling.”
“There were probably 100 people at the hospital just for him… a lot of people all involved for him,” said Agostino.
Just days after Lorenzo was born, he underwent open heart surgery with Dr. Morell, Mario Castro-Medina, MD, and Luciana da Fonseca da Silva, MD, two pediatric and adult cardiothoracic surgeons at UPMC Children’s.
A few days after his surgery, Lorenzo was on ECMO, which is a form of life support for people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries that affect the function of their heart or lungs. Gallagher said there was a clot that was traveling to his heart. This resulted in the team rushing Lorenzo back to emergency surgery.
“You think you’re in the clear because he just got surgery, but we weren’t—anything could happen and it did," said Gallagher.
While Lorenzo spent three months recovering under close supervision by the UPMC team, Gallagher and Agostino stayed in the Ronald McDonald family rooms, which are designed to support families through their child's medical journey. Lorenzo’s parents never left his side and were always a few steps away if they needed to see him.
Once Lorenzo became strong enough, Gallagher and Agostino were able to take baby Lorenzo home. Gallagher offered some advice to parents who may be going through the same thing, saying it’s best to stay away from the internet and to only listen to the professionals.
“My mom said that people always post the bad but never the good moments,” said Gallagher.
“I get sad with people who get told what we get told,” said Gallagher. “What if we didn’t seek a second opinion? What would we have done? So there’s hope.”
When Lorenzo is 3, he will need another surgery to make sure blood continues to flow through his body. Until then, the family continues to share their story and enjoy the miracle of their happy baby boy Lorenzo.
