Children's Hospital of Michigan opens new heart clinic in Troy

TROY, Mich. (FOX 2) - Every year, hundreds of babies born in Michigan undergo heart procedures. Now, Children's Hospital of Michigan is expanding to help with these treatments.

Children's Hospital of Michigan is adding a new heart clinic in Troy. For Michelle Guevara, who welcomed baby Apolonia earlier this year, the expansion of services is badly needed.

"I went through IVF to get Apolonia and I went through a really hard IVF journey," Michelle said. 

When her baby arrived, her and her husband, Ramon, couldn't hold her. She was having breathing and blood pressure issues, and she needed immediate help.

"She was being rushed to Children’s Hospital within the next 45 minutes they weren’t sure what it was but knew it was her heart," Michelle said.

Doctors at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit soon discovered Apolonia was born with congenital heart defects. 

"She had a large ventricular defect which is a hole between the two main pumping chambers of the heart," said Dr. Mamdouh Al-Ahmadi.

She had her first surgery at just two weeks old and a second surgery in June. Dr. Al-Ahmadi said he treated her like she was one of his own

"Apolonia is very special for me," he said. "Apolonia’s heart is totally normal. There is no more holes arteries are growing very well. We expect her to live a normal life."

Today, the little girl whose nickname is Apple, is thriving at 7-months-old.

And stories like hers are common as almost 1,000 babies undergo heart procedures each year. 

To help meet the needs of these families, the only pediatric cardiac surgery team in Southeast Michigan is expanding its Detroit heart clinic services to Children’s Hospital in Troy.

"We live in Waterford so it’s a good 50-minute to an hour-drive," Michelle said.

Now, they can take Apolonia to follow-up care and appointments to the Troy hospital, which opened on Tuesday.

"It’s just a convenience it’s nice you don’t have to drive an hour but just 20 minutes it makes life a lot easier," she said.

The Guevara family said that kind of care is what families should expect at their hospital. 

"That’s the type of care that every single person at Children’s put into our baby it was like they treated her as if she were their own," Ramon said.