About Trista

Trista Faith DeBruler was born on February 27, 2009 at 9:19am. Trista weighed 4.13 at birth. Around 20 weeks gestation, we found out through numerous ultrasounds that Trista had a serious heart condition - diagnosis was Tetralogy of Fallot. We were told Trista required open heart surgery around 4-6 months of age. On February 27th, Trista Faith was born. She was really tiny, but perfect. We were only able to hold her briefly before they had to transport her by ambulance to Children's. She did fairly well the first 5 days..then she had her first TET spell. It was only a few more days until she had her next TET spell and it was severe. We almost lost her. The doctors called us at 12am and told us to come right away. That was the day we needed to make the hardest decision of our lives. Open heart surgery at 12 days and only 4 pounds. Even with all of the risks, we felt we had only one choice and that was to undergo the full repair. March 11th was the big day. We call it Trista's new heart's birthday. She did great. She was put on a heart and lung machine and required 6 blood transfusions. She was able to come home on her 1 month birthday!