Although we had already gone for one fetal echo, this was the cardiologist that Dr. Henry Galan recommended. We were not expecting different news, but it would be good to get a second opinion on her heart.

We met with Dr. Adel Younoszai at the Chidren’s Hospital. He was fantastic – – very educated and thorough. He was able to recognize way more detail than the prior pediatric cardiologist.

He confirmed that “the heart was shifted into the right chest due to a large left CDH with a leftward apex. Normal segmental cardiac anatomy. There is some mild discrepancy in ventricular size (right> left) however the left ventricle is apex forming with normal inflow and outlet. The aortic arch is somewhat tortuous due to the cardiac position and there is mild narrowing at the isthmus with some persistent forward flow. There is discrepancy in the branch pulmonary artery anatomy with a slightly smaller left than right pulmonary artery (2.2mm vs 1.5mm). Normal atrio-ventricular synchrony.”

I left feeling good — he confirmed that she had no other abnormalities related to her heart.

At this point, it was confirmed: she has an isolated, severe, left sided diaphragmatic hernia (literally the entire left side of her diaphragm is missing), but she has no other abnormalities noted. This is good news – – she will have enough to overcome as it is, without having other abnormalities to complicate her prognosis.