Kisses for Kenzie – A Story of Strength:

Kenzie is a spunky, sassy 9-year-old girl who takes on every challenge in her wake. Her biggest challenge to date: recovering after her 4th major heart surgery at almost 8 years old.

Born on May 22, 2015, Kenzie weighed just over 4 pounds when she was born. She has multiple heart conditions including complete heart block (causing her to have a permanent pacemaker), cardiomyopathy (heart failure) and atrial septal defect (ASD). These complications lead to Kenzie having four heart surgeries (so far).

Kenzie’s hospital stays and surgeries:

A few hours after birth, Kenzie’s family was informed that Kenzie would need her first emergency surgery because her heart wasn’t in the condition the doctors had hoped. Her care team gave her a temporary pacemaker until she was able to grow more. She had her permanent pacer placed a few weeks after being born and spent about a month in the hospital.

After only two months of being at home, Kenzie abruptly stopped eating. Kenzie was readmitted to the hospital where they found that she was in heart failure. A feeding tube was placed, which she would need to use from 3.5 months old to 3.5 years old. Coinciding with that, they found out Kenzie also had neonatal lupus, which caused painful open wounds all over her body.

Kenzie went through another unexpected surgery when she was about 3 years old. Her pacemaker stopped working randomly which led to another surgery needed and her chest being opened a third time.

2022 started out all too familiar to her last surgery. Kenzie had her annual checkup in February of 2022 and found out that her ventricular leads in her pacemaker had completely fractured, causing the need for yet another major heart surgery, including opening her chest and belly for a fourth time. That was on March 17, 2022.

Kenzie today:

Kenzie has the spunk, sass, infectious energy and attitude of a 9-year-old girl, but is so wise beyond her years. Kenzie became a big sister to her brother, Nash, in December of 2022! As suspected, Kenzie has been the very best big sister ever and they can simply not get enough of each other! 

Kenzie has never given up and has always had a spark inside of her. Everyone on her team at Children’s, including her surgeon, Dr. Moga, said even when she was an infant, that she had something special about her. She’s smart, she’s resilient, and so intuitive.

Kenzie has taught everyone a lot of life lessons in her short years. She’s given her family the strength and positive energy they have now - seeing a child go through something like that and survive, just shows you how strong someone can be when they really need to be.

Kenzie’s family is so thankful for the amazing technologies she’s encountered and used over the years, along with her team of doctors, nurses, and technicians who have repeatedly saved Kenzie’s life. Miracles truly do happen within the walls of Children's Minnesota 🩷