Hearts of gold

PAULA HULBURT

With her blonde hair in bunches, fifteen-month-old Amelie Bryce is a bundle of energy and happy smiles.

She adores all the family’s seven farm dogs, is learning to walk and her giggles are contagious.

For proud parents Chloe and Tim Bryce, watching their healthy daughter thrive is a huge relief.

Born with two holes in her heart, Millie as she is affectionately known, had open heart surgery at just four weeks old. If it weren’t for the help and support of Heart Kids NZ, says Chloe, coping with Millie’s heart problems would have been a huge struggle. Now the pair are paying it forward with a special mid-winter black tie ball to raise vital funds for the charity.

“One of the first things they [Heart Kids NZ] did was give me a book that described everything to do with heart surgery and what to expect.

“That was amazing. It confirmed that everything I was feeling was normal and I could talk to someone who knew exactly what we’d been through.”

As a first-time mum, Chloe says she wasn’t sure what to expect but alarm bells rang when she went for her 20-week anatomy scan at Wairau Hospital.

“There was a bit of a silence when they were looking at her heart, Millie is our first child, so we didn’t know anything different, but I began to think something was wrong.”

Referred to Maternal Fetal Medicine in Wellington, Chloe and Tim were given the news that their daughter would probably need open heart sur- gery, which she underwent at three weeks old.

At 39 weeks, Chloe was in duced at Wellington Hospital as medical staff weren’t sure how sick Millie would be once born.

“She was perfect,” Chloe says.

“The first week, everything was fine but when we went to Wairau for a checkup, they told me she wasn’t breathing that well.

“It was a shock … as they’d told us that if she was fine when she was born, she might not need surgery until about four or five months old and I’d just got it in my head she was okay.”

The new family were sent to Starship Hospital in Auckland where Millie had surgery. On their return to Wairau, Heart Kids NZ got in touch.

“They provide lifelong care and support to children, teens,