CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Nikcole Gerhardt knew something was wrong at 24 weeks pregnant during what should have been a routine prenatal ultrasound with their surrogate.
“I could see the big screen, and I knew his heart did not look right,” Gerhardt said.
Her son, Everton Johnson, now 22 months old, was born with two critical heart defects: Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, where the left side of the heart is too small to pump blood properly, and Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return, a rare condition where blood vessels from the lungs don’t connect correctly to the heart…