RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – After undergoing a rare double-lung transplant in Texas, a Central Virginia baby is finally back home and thriving.
At 10 months old, Kylie Overfield-Haddix has a new lease on life, able to bounce and blow bubbles like any other normal baby.
Only, she’s far from ordinary.“It still feels like a dream that I hope I never wake up from,” her mother, Ashley Overfied, said. Kylie was born in November 2023 but never left the hospital.
It took a couple of months before doctors finally diagnosed her with a one-in-a-million disease called Surfactant B Deficiency.
The recessive lung disorder leads to deadly respiratory failure within the first few months of life.
The only hope for Kylie’s survival was a double-lung transplant, but the surgery isn’t available for infants in Virginia.
Her entire family had to relocate to Houston in January so Kylie could be put on the transplant list at Texas Children’s Hospital.They waited months for a donor, which came in the nick of time.
In April, doctors at Texas Children’s successfully performed a double-lung transplant on Kylie, as well as an unexpected heart surgery to repair some holes.“I don’t think I slept for the first two or three days,” Overfield said. “Me and her dad took turns sleeping.”
The next hurdle was ensuring Kylie’s little body accepted the new lungs.
She passed that with flying colors, too.The family was finally able to return home to Virginia in early August.
“I cried so much when I saw the ‘Welcome to Virginia’ sign because the last time I was here, I didn’t know if she was going to live,” Overfield said. “I didn’t know if we were going to bring her back.”Overfield said Texas Children’s only let them return after reassurances that VCU’s Children’s Hospital of Richmond could handle Kylie’s special care.
“For babies, there’s only ever been 32 lung transplants, period,” Overfield said.
Overfield says Kylie is the only baby with a double lung transplant in the state.
“So even though they’ve had heart transplants, which are more common and stuff like that, nobody has ever had the lung transplant,” she said. “So it’s new for everybody. They’re doing really well. They’re very attentive. I can text them anytime I want.”Overfield and her husband are focused on giving Kylie the best care possible at home. Medication is given through her G-tube.
“So when we give her meds, she gets 12 to 14 depending on the day, in the morning and then 12 to 14 at night,” Overfield said.
The family also does Kylie’s physical therapy exercises at home until they can get off the waitlist for a therapist in the area.
They have to keep her trach meticulously clean to avoid infections, but they hope Kylie will be ready to remove it soon after she is breathing better independently.
“She’s perfect,” Overfield gushed. “I can’t believe she almost wasn’t here.”
Overfield says she plans to create a non-profit foundation in Kylie’s name to help pay it forward to other families going through similar struggles.
“How can I be given such a gift and not doing anything with it? That wouldn’t feel right to me,” Overfield said.
She said details will eventually be posted on Kylie’s Lung Transplant Journey Facebook page.
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