Not long after Arya was born she was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect (CHD) that was putting pressure on her aortic valve, causing it to work harder and ultimately stressing her little heart. Her diagnosis was a subaortic membrane and aortic stenosis from her aortic valve being a bit too small. In addition her mitral valve was not correctly formed. Overall that general area of Arya's heart was experiencing stenosis and causing it to work harder.
Arya would need several procedures to correct this, and her care team at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago had hoped to perform these later in life. Instead, they needed to intervene at 9 months to remove the subaortic membrane and again at 1 year to perform a ROSS-KONNO to address the aortic stenosis and valve. While the timing was unexpected, both were huge successes and even warranted cheers in the OR!
This is when the team Amazing Arya (formerly team Arya Strong) was created.
In 2023 and 2024, Arya had a cardiac catheterization performed, where it was confirmed she would eventually need a repair on her conduit and a third open heart surgery on her mitral valve.
Arya is currently on medication to keep her mitral valve gradient mild and she checks in with her heart care team every 2-4 weeks. She is expected to get her third cardiac catheterization performed this May (2025) as they wait for the surgical team's opinion on when is the optimal time to intervene on her mitral valve.
Arya is an extremely active, loving, sweet, smart, stubborn warrior. She enjoys her dance classes, school, and lots of playdates with friends.
