Baby Lilah

My brother, Paul, and his wife Gina received some bad news about their 2 month old baby girl, Lilah. Just this weekend they found out that she was born with several holes in her heart and the outlook is not good at all. Some info about her condition:

Lilah is in the ICU at Children's Hospital with what started last week as a cold and turned into a respiratory infection requiring IV antibiotics. After they were admitted to the hospital yesterday, they did a chest x-ray where it was found that Lilah's heart was enlarged. They then did an echo (ultrasound of the heart) yesterday evening and Lilah has been diagnosed with several cardiac defects. She has a ventricular septal defect (VSD - a hole between the ventricles), an atrial septal defect (ASD - a hole between the atriums) and Left Ventricular Non-Compaction (where the heart muscle is not "compact" and has many holes in it). The last defect is the most serious. Lilah is in congestive heart failure because of these defects and they are giving her medicines to manage the heart failure. They are going to start a central line (IV right to her heart) tonight, so they will be able to give her medicines and draw blood easily. They have had a very hard time starting IV's and drawing blood since they have been there, and it has been hard for Paul and Gina to watch Lilah be "poked" so many times, so hopefully this will be helpful.

Also, the Doctors feel like that there may be a "bigger picture" to all of this. They are consulting with Neurology and Endocrinology to run more tests and see what else may be going on. As far as treatment, right now they are working to stabilize her heart with medication and continue to run tests for more information.

Please pray for this sweet little baby.
PS - My father is back in the hospital and is deteriorating both mentally and physically. Please remember him, too.