TULSA, Okla. — According to the CDC 40,000 babies are born with a heart defect.
Some families lose a child from it, like Carly Tumelson, who lost her little girl in 2020.
2 News listened to her story of using her tragedy to help others. Carly was five months pregnant when she learned her baby would be born with a heart defect.
The condition was the pinching of a valve in her heart. Baby Hope was born on August 1st, 2019.
Hope had heart surgery soon after she was born and was in the NICU for three months.
“She was a fighter; she was so resilient, even days in the NICU where we didn’t think she would make it, we would be surprised the next day, and she’d be fine, smiling in the bed,” Tumelson said.
Hope was home with her family for about four months until March 2020, when everything changed.
Hope caught a cold and got extremely sick. She was back in the hospital for three weeks and finally went home on March 7th, 2020. She died on March 14th, 2020. Tumelson said they are still not sure if she died from COVID or her heart defect.
“She was here for seven months, seven gorgeous months,” Tumelson said.
When Carly lost baby Hope at seven months, she was devastated and never thought she would be helping other moms four years later.
She said getting to talk about Hope to others not only helps her heal but other moms going through the same grief.
I, of course, miss her, dearly. But I’m choosing to use her death as a point of showing other women who’ve lost children, other heart mamas, that they are not alone and it does get better
She is an organizer for the annual Oklahoma Children’s Heart Foundation Walk.
The Children's Heart Foundation aims to raise awareness and money to advance the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of congenital heart defects.
The walk will be about one mile around the Dream Keepers Park.
Families who lost loved ones or who have a child with a heart defect and others can participate in the walk on September 14th.
“We’re going to be excited; we get to brag about our babies. Who doesn’t love that,” Tumelson said about the walk.
The walk will also have markers around the trial and Hope’s picture will be on one of the markers.
The goal this year is to raise $35,000 for the organization and they have already raised almost $15,000. All the proceeds will go to the foundation.
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