MINNEAPOLIS — Newborn Maddy Smith was diagnosed with end-stage heart failure last Valentine’s Day. But thanks to a priceless gift, her family will have a much different holiday this year.
“We’re just so grateful for everything and every day that has come,” said Jessie Smith, Maddy’s mother.
There was a time when Jessie and Colin Smith were praying for a cry. Last Valentine’s Day, the Smiths rushed 2-week-old Maddy to the E.R. It was there they learned she was in end-stage heart failure due to a rare genetic mitochondrial disorder.
“You don’t know whether it’s going to be a month or a year,” Colin Smith said.
Kept alive by a heart pump, Maddy spent seven months in the cardiovascular intensive unit at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.
“Take it day by day and know that you can get to a really beautiful place on the other side if you can just hold on,” Jessie Smith said.
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On that other side was a heart. On Sept. 7, 2023, a successful transplant was made for one of M Health Fairview’s youngest and smallest patients.