On August 21st, Felicity Vera Bowen was born at 12:59pm. All prenatal testing predicted a perfectly healthy baby, but soon after Felicity was delivered, she was not able to breathe on her own. She was quickly intubated and airlifted to Duke Medical Center where they determined she has a rare condition called “transposition of the great arteries” or TPA.
TPA is a congenital heart disease that happens in 1 in 3-5,000 live births. In transposition of the great arteries, the aorta is in front of the pulmonary artery and is either primarily to the right (dextro) or to the left (levo) of the pulmonary artery. Levo-TGA is rarer than dextro-TGA. Dextro-TGA is often simply called “TGA.” However, “TGA” is a broader term that includes both dextro-TGA (d-TGA) and levo-TGA (l-TGA), or congenitally corrected TGA, which is where the lower vessels of the heart are reversed (L-TGA).
How You Can Help: Prayers & Donations (if able)
That is a lot for a new mom to digest, right? You can read Chandler’s journal entries here and if able, donate to her Go Fund Me page here. Chandler and Zack are currently living in a hotel in Durham to be closer to Felicity while she is treated at Duke Medical Center NICU.
I’m sure you read the headline, A 4 Million Dollar NICU Bill, in the New York Times. As you can imagine, this NICU stay will be incredibly costly for the Bowen Family. Felicity’s condition, transposition of the great arteries, requires her to have at least one open heart surgery to switch the main arteries. Actually, she is in surgery right now as I type this. She will receive blood transfusions, costly life-sustaining medications, and will stay in the NICU for about a month.
Chandler has grown up with me as a sister.
Felicity is the daughter that my best friend of 16 years has prayed for and she is joining the family along with Chandler’s 2-year old son, Fisher. Since the 6th grade, Chandler has been one of my closest friends. I was there the day she met her husband, Zack, in middle school. We graduated high school together and spent countless summers at the river. I was in her wedding and she was one of the only people to regularly call and check in on me while I was in Baltimore. She has been through hell, but she would give you the shirt off her back in a heartbeat. You can see her heart of service as she makes pink peony bouquets for each guest at My Elegant Garden-Inspired Bridal Shower.
Felicity has already touched so many lives in her 4 days of life.
I’ve shared this sweet baby’s face all over my Instagram, TikTok, & Facebook, so I thought we should talk more about her story here. I think it is incredible that she has only spent 4 days on this earth, yet she has already touched so many lives.
This could easily be you or I in Chandler’s situation. Please take a minute to read Felicity’s story here and educate yourself about TPA (links below). If you feel called, please donate to help relieve the Bowen Family of the financial burden here. Every $10 counts.
Above all, please pray for Dr. Lodge and the medical team at Duke and Felicity’s recovery. Pray that Chandler and Zack will be flooded with peace. Pray for Chandler’s healing as it has only been a few days since giving birth.
Thank you for your prayers. They are working.
xo, Chels
*Here are some other great resources for learning about TPA:
National Center for Biotechnology Information
Leave a Reply