Heart Angel – Mila’s Story

This post was written by Lisa Bocan. Lisa is mom to three beautiful children, one being heart angel Mila Rose. Read about Mila’s story through her mom’s eyes. It is one of loss and hope, anguish and peace, and ultimately — love.

“It’s a little girl”

On April 28, 2015, our little family of three was ushered into the ultrasound room to complete a routine anatomy scan at 18 weeks 5 days gestation. Our three-year old Brenna joyfully watched her baby wiggle around on the screen as the tech completed our anatomy scan.
The scan was nearly complete so daddy took a sleepy toddler home and left me to complete the scan. Just a short time after they left for home, I heard the words that forever changed the course of our lives. “I am so sorry, but there is something wrong with your baby’s heart.”
After suffering three miscarriages prior to this pregnancy and then experiencing a textbook pregnancy up to this point, my heart was broken once again. Our precious baby was sick. I immediately grieved the normalcy of a heart healthy baby and through tears and shock I asked the tech, “Is it a boy or a girl?”
“It’s a little girl.” the tech said. I smiled through my tears.

Mila, our Miracle

We decided to name our baby girl right away so we could pray by name. At 7 weeks pregnant I had woken up with the name Mila on my mind. It had never been a name on our list for our first daughter nor was it one I had thought of prior to that day. I went home and looked up the name meaning. Mila meant miracle. What a perfect name for our miracle baby.
In an instant, everything changed. I became a parent to a child with CHD. I was now a Heart Mama. We were immediately thrown into a world we never even knew existed, let alone wanted to be a part of.
Mila would be born with half a heart. The official diagnosis was Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome with Aortic Atresia and Mitral Atresia caused by Jacobsen Syndrome.
Our textbook pregnancy turned into high risk doctor visits, phone calls to top ranked children’s hospitals and trying to keep some level of normalcy for our three-year old daughter.

Boston Bound

On August 22nd, 2015, we relocated our entire family, dogs and all, to Boston, Massachusetts so Mila could receive care at Boston Children’s Hospital immediately following birth.
Mila Rose was born on September 10th, 2015, after induction at 38 weeks 1 day. She came out crying and her coloring was perfect. Her Apgar scores were 8 and 9. She appeared to be perfectly healthy from the outside. After holding her for the fastest 10 minutes of my life they took her away to the NICU with daddy close behind her.
Boston Children’s Hospital became home. For nearly two months our entire family navigated life in Boston. Matt and I traveled between the hospital and our host family where Brenna lived until the decision was made to send Brenna and Daddy back home to regain some normalcy. They packed up the car, we gave hugs and kisses in the parking garage and they traveled the 12 hours back to NC. Again, my heart was broken.
I now had one goal, care for Mila the best I could and pray we could bring her home one day so our whole family could be together once again.