A New Heart for a 10 Year Old Girl - Erika Kurre

A ten year old girl is back home and recovering after getting the gift of life-- a new heart-- she had to have.

Tonight, she shares her courageous story.

Toward the end of the last school year, third grader Katie Davenport felt like she had the flu.

Within days, she was in the hospital -- not for the flu -- but waiting for a new heart.

The sudden feeling of hanging on to life was surprising and frightening for Katie and her family.

Now, just weeks after her surgery, Katie is back home in Lewisburg and sharing her story.

Katie Davenport says while pointing to a picture of her new heart, "It's like around there and that's a chamber, that's one and that's one."

Katie Davenport points out the features of her new heart.

She compares it to the heart she was born with, which was replaced just seven weeks ago.

Katie says, "It was like larger."

Katie started feeling tired and nauseated in early May.

By the time Mother's Day rolled around, her mom knew it was more than just the flu.

Kathy McCullough says, "She didn't feel good at all that day. So we went to the emergency room that evening and they told us then that her heart was enlarged and that she needed to see a cardiologist at Vanderbilt."

Katie was diagnosed with Cardiomyopathy.

Her heart was enlarged and only pumping 15 percent of blood flow through her body.

Getting a new heart was the only way to keep her alive.

Katie says, "I was nervous at first but then I just said that god's with me and I know that he's gonna take care of me."

Kathy says, "She was not as scared as I would be. I journaled the whole time we were there and I was reading it last night and I had written in there that she was my hero-- that I couldn't do what she did."

Amazingly, Katie only had to wait four days on the heart transplant list.

After a five hour surgery, she woke up with a new heart and a new chance for life.

Katie says, "It's like I have more energy and I can run faster and stuff like that."

But the new heart also brings added responsibility.

Katie says, "I’ve got to take my blood pressure twice a day."

She's also got more than a dozen daily medications to take and she keeps a log of her blood pressure and temperatures.

Going through all this and handling it so well is a sign of strength her mother never knew she had.

Kathy says, "She has always been a child that didn't seem strong. She was more-- any little thing that hurt her, she was pretty dramatic about things. So that she came through this the way she did is just unbelievable how strong she's been."

Doctors don't know why or how long Katie has had Cardiomyopathy.

She donated the heart she was born with to Vanderbilt for research on the disease.

There is a fund set up for Katie Davenport at First National Bank of Lewisburg.

For more information, call (931) 359-5900.
A New Heart for a 10 Year Old Girl - Erika Kurre