Our Riley Kid of the Week this week is Riley Lesh! Riley is currently 12 years old and has been to tons of PUDM events as well as marathons. She is full of energy and a joy to be around. Riley spends her time outside of school at gymnastics practice, reading, playing with friends, and wrestling her two kittens. Her Riley store is told below.
Riley’s mom experienced many complications during her pregnancy, including severe preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome. Due to this, Riley was born more than two months before her due date on March 2, 2002 and weighed only 26 ounces. Riley was immediately transported to Riley Children Hospital and suffered further complications during the transport. Her heart began to beat irregularly and she temporarily lost blood flow to her leg. Riley’s parents were only able to see her for very short amounts of time and could only rest a finger on her tiny body because she was very sensitive.
At two weeks old, Riley had surgery done to repair a duct in her heart that wasn’t closing on its own. This surgery saved her life. Before the surgery, she was changing ventilators every hour or so in attempt to keep her lungs from collapsing or over-inflating. She was given paralytic drugs to keep her still and let her body try to heal. The surgery was a success and a week later, her parent’s were allowed to hold her for the first time.
The next few weeks were a roller coaster of good news and scary news for Riley. She was getting bigger and gaining weight, but struggled with bad lungs and feeding issues. It was decided that she would go home on oxygen and a feeding tube. Finally, after 90 days in the NICU, Riley went home. It was May 31st, a week or so before her due date.
Riley continued to visit Riley Children’s Hospital on a daily and weekly basis, until eventually she only had to go monthly. A therapist visited her house three days a week to help her learn how to do things that typical babies do on their own. When Riley was 18 months old, she graduated from developmental pediatrics. She still visits Riley for her annual pediatric appointments.
A very cool and amazing fun fact about Riley is that she has attended 137 dance marathons!! Way to go Riley!! We are excited to see you at our PUDM events very soon!
Our Riley Kid of the Week this week is Riley Lesh! Riley is currently 12 years old and has been to tons of PUDM events as well as marathons. She is full of energy and a joy to be around. Riley spends her time outside of school at gymnastics practice, reading, playing with friends, and wrestling her two kittens. Her Riley store is told below.
Riley’s mom experienced many complications during her pregnancy, including severe preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome. Due to this, Riley was born more than two months before her due date on March 2, 2002 and weighed only 26 ounces. Riley was immediately transported to Riley Children Hospital and suffered further complications during the transport. Her heart began to beat irregularly and she temporarily lost blood flow to her leg. Riley’s parents were only able to see her for very short amounts of time and could only rest a finger on her tiny body because she was very sensitive.
At two weeks old, Riley had surgery done to repair a duct in her heart that wasn’t closing on its own. This surgery saved her life. Before the surgery, she was changing ventilators every hour or so in attempt to keep her lungs from collapsing or over-inflating. She was given paralytic drugs to keep her still and let her body try to heal. The surgery was a success and a week later, her parent’s were allowed to hold her for the first time.
The next few weeks were a roller coaster of good news and scary news for Riley. She was getting bigger and gaining weight, but struggled with bad lungs and feeding issues. It was decided that she would go home on oxygen and a feeding tube. Finally, after 90 days in the NICU, Riley went home. It was May 31st, a week or so before her due date.
Riley continued to visit Riley Children’s Hospital on a daily and weekly basis, until eventually she only had to go monthly. A therapist visited her house three days a week to help her learn how to do things that typical babies do on their own. When Riley was 18 months old, she graduated from developmental pediatrics. She still visits Riley for her annual pediatric appointments.
A very cool and amazing fun fact about Riley is that she has attended 137 dance marathons!! Way to go Riley!! We are excited to see you at our PUDM events very soon!
Our Riley Kid of the Week this week is Riley Lesh! Riley is currently 12 years old and has been to tons of PUDM events as well as marathons. She is full of energy and a joy to be around. Riley spends her time outside of school at gymnastics practice, reading, playing with friends, and wrestling her two kittens. Her Riley store is told below.
Riley’s mom experienced many complications during her pregnancy, including severe preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome. Due to this, Riley was born more than two months before her due date on March 2, 2002 and weighed only 26 ounces. Riley was immediately transported to Riley Children Hospital and suffered further complications during the transport. Her heart began to beat irregularly and she temporarily lost blood flow to her leg. Riley’s parents were only able to see her for very short amounts of time and could only rest a finger on her tiny body because she was very sensitive.
At two weeks old, Riley had surgery done to repair a duct in her heart that wasn’t closing on its own. This surgery saved her life. Before the surgery, she was changing ventilators every hour or so in attempt to keep her lungs from collapsing or over-inflating. She was given paralytic drugs to keep her still and let her body try to heal. The surgery was a success and a week later, her parent’s were allowed to hold her for the first time.
The next few weeks were a roller coaster of good news and scary news for Riley. She was getting bigger and gaining weight, but struggled with bad lungs and feeding issues. It was decided that she would go home on oxygen and a feeding tube. Finally, after 90 days in the NICU, Riley went home. It was May 31st, a week or so before her due date.
Riley continued to visit Riley Children’s Hospital on a daily and weekly basis, until eventually she only had to go monthly. A therapist visited her house three days a week to help her learn how to do things that typical babies do on their own. When Riley was 18 months old, she graduated from developmental pediatrics. She still visits Riley for her annual pediatric appointments.
A very cool and amazing fun fact about Riley is that she has attended 137 dance marathons!! Way to go Riley!! We are excited to see you at our PUDM events very soon!
