The first half of Katie Perciavalle’s second pregnancy was perfectly smooth. The Melville, NY, resident, who works in corporate marketing at Northwell Health, had given birth to her first son during the COVID-19 pandemic in the summer of 2020. This time felt so much easier. Cared for by her OB/GYN Jessica Rubin, MD, she felt safe and figured she knew what to expect.

But things took a turn at her 20-week anatomy scan, when Caroline Pessel, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, noticed a potential problem with the baby’s heart.

“They try to keep you calm, but you never want to hear that,” 36-year-old Katie said. “I was so thankful that my mom was with me.”

Right away, Katie and her mom met with nurse navigator Jeanne Woods Ludwig, who scheduled her for a fetal echocardiogram that same day. She then met pediatric cardiologist Sandra Brunson, MD.

Dr. Brunson had shocking news: Katie’s baby likely had what’s known as a vascular ring. It occurs when the aorta, which pumps blood from the heart, doesn’t develop properly. Instead, it forms a “ring” around the esophagus and trachea. As a result, the baby could show symptoms at birth, such as trouble breathing or swallowing. Or, those symptoms could crop up later, as a toddler trying to swallow new foods or even a teenager unable to play sports without difficulty breathing.

As Katie processed the news, she said Dr. Brunson was empathetic and supportive, assuring her that this wasn’t her fault or the result of anything she had done. “She was really, really warm,” Katie said. Fortunately, further tests showed that despite this anomaly, the baby was growing normally.

Dr. Brunson sent Katie and her husband, Michael, to cardiothoracic surgeon Timothy Martens, MD. Dr. Martens explained how advanced technology made it easier to see these defects earlier than in the past—and that, after the baby was born, the issue could be repaired. If the baby’s symptoms were severe, surgery would need to happen right away, otherwise, the parents could decide when to move forward.

That said, Dr. Martens recommended doing the surgery sooner rather than later, in part to get ahead of the problem and fix it, and also to offer Katie and Michael peace of mind. “I was totally on board with that,” Katie explained, as was Michael; neither of them wanted to worry about when symptoms might start.

Three months later, after an easy labor and quick delivery, baby Kai was born at North Shore University Hospital. Still in the delivery room, doctors performed an echocardiogram on the newborn to confirm the diagnosis. At that point, the newborn was breathing normally and soon began feeding normally, too.

“It was like you could finally take a deep breath because this moment we’ve been dreading for 20 weeks—is he going to be in distress? Is he not going to be in distress?—had arrived. And he seemed fine,” Katie said. But they had already decided to have the vascular ring repaired as soon as Kai was a little bigger and stronger.

The family soon met with pediatric cardiologist Elizabeth Mitchell, MD, who performed a CT scan to again confirm the diagnosis. In a consultation with Dr. Mitchell as well as Dr. Martens, they scheduled the surgery, which Dr. Martens would perform at Cohen Children’s Medical Center when Kai was 9 weeks old.

Going into the experience was nerve-wracking and difficult—it’s never easy to send your tiny baby into an operating room—but the surgery was a success. “Dr. Martens was confident and matter of fact, but also very compassionate,” she said. She was comforted by the care the whole family received from the team at the hospital. “The people who work at Cohen Children’s, they are like angels on Earth.”

Kai spent two nights in the hospital, and his recovery once home was smooth.

Throughout the experience, Katie recalled one of the most helpful aspects was all the coordination across various hospital teams—from recommending physicians to setting up appointments. “It was 10 less things I had to worry about because it was just done for us,” she said.

Now 9 months old, Kai is a happy baby, who eats and sleeps well—and is always smiling.

And Katie said she’s so grateful. “There were 199 days between when we got Kai’s diagnosis at the anatomy scan to when he had his surgery, and that was the most grueling and torturous time. It’s just wonderful that it’s behind us.”