The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1135273
A-6 Local Wednesday, June 26, 2019 The Press-Dispatch Continued from page 1 MILLIE gery immediately after be- ing born. Doctor R. Mark Ayers, Riley Children's Health cardiologist, in- stalled a tiny pacemaker. "She had to undergo that initial pacemaker transplant before most kids were out of the womb. Because she was so small when the surgery had to be performed, we had to use the tiniest device we could." It was a one-lead de- vice. She weighed just 4 lbs., 12 ounces. "I didn't get to see Millie for two or three days," said Candra. "Thank goodness for Facetime." Millie spent the first month of her life in Riley's before being able to go home. "Surgery went great and she grew up like a nor- mal infant and toddler. Then in January, we found out her battery life was low and she needed an updated pace- maker to make heart beat at the same pace." Dr. Ayers said because she had grown, the updat- ed pacemaker would also be a two-lead pacemaker, which could better control her heart's rhythm. Candra and her husband, Mitch, grew up in central Indiana in Brazil and Terre Haute. They landed in Peters- burg after Mitch got a job at Toyota. "We wanted to live in a small town." So when they found a house in Petersburg, it became their new home. "We bought the house on Millie's first birthday," said Candra. Millie's second surgery was on March 1. Mitch and Candra thought this was go- ing to be like the previous surgery, but it wasn't. "She was fine that night, she was fine the next morn- ing." Candra said she was in the room with Millie, and she, the nurses and Mil- lie were having a conversa- tion. "She (Millie) got mad at the nurse for picking her up and had a little tantrum and leaned back. When she did, the lead tightened around her heart." "She was sitting on my lap screaming and yelling at the nurse and just stopped. So the nurse took her, started compressions, and yelled for help, and the room filled with people." A fter about 16 minutes of CPR, the medical team de- cided to put Millie on an EC- MO (extracorporeal mem- brane oxygenation). ECMO is a miracle of modern medi- cal technology. It is a system that does the function of the heart and lungs. Ayers said it moves the blood through the body and oxygenates it. It often allows the body time to recover so the heart and lungs can heal and rest enough to start working again. Candra said, "They start- ed doing tests. They came back negative, that was frus- trating." She explained it was frus- trating because the nega- tive test results meant they couldn't figure out what was causing Millie's problems. "On day three, she was sta- ble. So they tried to take her off ECMO and she had an- other cardiac arrest. So they put her back on it." On the fourth day, the medical team decided to do surgery to see if they could find the problem. It worked. Candra said they found one of the two leads on the pace- maker had come loose and wrapped around Millie's heart. They corrected it. Millie was the 1,000th pa- tient at Riley Children's Hos- pital to be treated with EC- MO. Her recovery wasn't as quick as the first time. She was in the hospital for 10 weeks. Candra said, "Her lungs weren't healing as quickly as they thought. She got some kind of infec- tion and she had to do six weeks of antibiotics." She al- so developed blood clots in her heart. She had been tak- ing two shots a day of blood thinner to dissolve the blood clots. Last Friday, as Candra and Millie were driving to Indianapolis for a CT scan to see of the blood clots were still there, Millie was in the backseat saying, "no more shots." Candra said they got good news. The clots were com- pletely gone, but she had to have an IV put in. "She wasn't thrilled about that." The news that she doesn't have to have two shots a day was "a weight lifted off." Last Thursday, she was outside playing in the yard with her brother, Miles, swinging in an airplane swing her grandfather made for her. She wasn't just swinging, but swinging with no hands on the ropes say- ing, "no hands! ," and a mile- wide smile beaming. "It is crazy what these kids can do. My mind is blown that she had a total of three cardiac arrests and you can't tell," said Candra. "She is my strong, sassy girl." Candra explained Millie had to learn to walk, eat and drink again. "Those were pretty hard times. She knew she could do it, she had do- ne it before, but she couldn't after the surgery. We had a lot of frustration the first few days, but her sassiness got her through it." Candra said her fami- ly and support system, and the nurses and doctors and housekeeper at Riley's helped them get through it. "Janet Graff, a neighbor, became like a third grand- ma to my kids," said Candra. Now they are just enjoy- ing getting back to being a normal family doing normal, little things that are taken for granted by most fam- ilies, like bath time. "She loves bath time. At the hos- pital, bath time is a sterilized cloth. She just wanted an ac- tual bath." Now she gets to play out- side, get dirty like every oth- er kid and take a bath like every other kid, except she might enjoy it a little more than most. Above: Millie Modisett and her brother, Miles, play on a slide in their backyard. Below: Millie Modisett gives her doll a bottle from her hospital bed in Riley Children's Hospital while recovering from heart surgery. LOST DOG NAME: Sadie GENDER: Female ADDRESS LAST SEEN: Near North Co. Rd. 700 East, Winslow, IN (Winslow address but closer to Otwell) DESCRIPTION: Beagle mix, mostly tan with white on her belly and front leg. 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