Meet Landry

Landry’s parents learned that she had heart complications when her mom Natalie was only 18 weeks pregnant. Through an ultrasound, Landry was diagnosed with congenital heart block, a rare condition that affects the electrical conduction system of the heart from birth. This meant that her heart was unable to regulate its beating, leading to a slow or irregular heart rate.

Landry’s parents came to Nationwide Children's Hospital to create a plan to manage her heart before and after she was born. “Before she was born, they would monitor her heart rate and if she started to drop low, then we would get admitted and they'd watch me and watch her more closely,” shares Natalie.

Landry was born at 34 weeks and weighed just 3 pounds, 12 ounces. Because she was so small, her heart rate was managed with medications and monitored her with echocardiograms until she was big enough to get a pacemaker. At 6 weeks old, and only weighing around five pounds, Landry had her first surgery to place a pacemaker. “She got the smallest that she could,” Natalie remembers, “but the only available space to protect it was her abdomen, although typical pacemakers go in your clavicle area.”

After the pacemaker was implanted, doctors didn’t see the improvement they expected. It was then recommended that the hole between the left and right atria of her heart be closed.

Just shy of 2 years old, Landry had open heart surgery to repair the hole and during that surgery, received a different style of pacemaker. “This one reads what her heart wants to do and then mimics it,” Natalie explains. “So if she is running, her heart rate would speed up and so will the pacemaker. It acts more like a typical heart.”

After the hole was repaired, Landry thrived. Today, when not playing soccer, golf or basketball, she can be found doting on her dogs Goose and Stanley. When it comes to her future, her parents want Landry to know she can do anything she sets her mind to. “We've let her try all the sports, all the activities,” says Natalie. “I just want her to have no fear while understanding her situation and managing the risk accordingly.”

This holiday season, give to the Light Up the Lawn, Light Up a Life campaign and you can help patients achieve anything they set their mind to, just like Landry.