Holly BaltzMother of 8-month-old had issued plea for prayers on Facebook after fluid buildup.
Mabel Rose Correal of Lake Worth Beach, the feisty infant who fought so hard to live after being born with rare congenital heart defects, died on Tuesday, four weeks after a heart transplant. She was 8 months old.
“This morning our Mabel Rose felt the sun and breeze on her skin as we kissed her goodbye and she went home to Jesus surrounded by love,” her mother, Hanna Love-Correal, said in a Facebook post. “Our girl has fought so hard and is now at peace. I am so grateful for the time God granted us with her.”
Two days earlier, Hanna had posted a desperate plea for prayers because her baby’s urine output had slowed. Doctors at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, where Mabel Rose has been since January, told the family that draining the fluid so her kidneys could recover was their “only option … our last hail mary.”
“She is too small for dialysis,” Hanna said. “Please pray for our girl.”
More than 550 donors, foundation offer help
As word spread about Mabel Rose’s fight to live, the community rallied around her, Hanna and Mabel Rose’s father, Mateo.
More than 550 donors raised nearly $50,000 on two GoFundMe pages.
A Palm Beach Gardens nonprofit, The Kemp Legacy Foundation, set up to help families struggling with medical crises and chronic illness, gave the family a large gift. John Kemp Jr., who spent much of his childhood in hospitals battling illness, started the foundation with his mother, Jennifer.
“We had so much hope when Mabel Rose finally received her hero heart after 168 days of waiting,” Jennifer Kemp said Wednesday. Her husband, John Sr., is a Palm Beach Gardens City Council member. “To know everything she endured, how incredibly hard she fought, and then to learn that she passed away is simply heartbreaking.
“Our hearts are with Hanna, Mateo and their entire family. … Mabel Rose may have been tiny, but her life was mighty. She touched an extraordinary number of people in such a short time, including our family, and we will never forget her.”
Hanna especially expressed gratitude for the support when she learned her baby would have a chance at life with a transplant.
“We are proud to have such a beautiful faithful village holding us through the storm,” she said on Facebook.
Scant chance of survival
Mabel Rose was born Dec. 13 at a Royal Palm Beach birthing center. Immediately after the birth, the midwife knew something was gravely wrong, Hanna said. They rushed the baby to HCA Florida Palms West Hospital then quickly took her to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami.
Mabel Rose was missing the left lower chamber in her heart, had a hole in her diaphragm through which her kidney had migrated to rest atop one of her lungs and a leaking valve in her heart.
Her condition is known as hypoplastic left heart syndrome, one of the most complex congenital heart defects in newborns, Nicklaus Children’s states on its website. There is no clear cause.
A 1992 study in the Chest Journal had found only nine cases like it in English medical literature. The survival rate is very low, between 1% and 5%.
In Miami, surgeons repaired the hole in her diaphragm and stabilized her. Then the baby moved to Shands to await a heart transplant. There, Dr. Mark Bleiweis implanted a Berlin Heart, an exterior device that pumps oxygenated blood while a child waits for a transplant.
While they waited, Hanna kept people abreast of Mabel Rose’s milestones on Instagram and Facebook.
In a tribute posted Tuesday on Facebook, Hanna spoke of their days together — mopping the floor of her hospital room “3X” while her daughter watched, snuggling on the floor and the baby’s rare smiles.
“It took so long to get this girl to smile, no joke. And she would hide it. Cheeky girl.”
Mabel Rose was born with a fighting spirit.
“She’s very feisty. She has a reputation in the cardiac unit,” Hanna said in January. “Every nurse she has says she’s extremely strong.”
The transplant finally happens
On Mabel Rose’s grandmother’s birthday, Aug. 5, the word came. A donor heart was available.
Hanna wrote a post expressing deep gratitude for the family that had in its most trying time given her child a chance at life.
“A family in the hardest time of their lives made the decision to give our baby girl a chance at life through the donation of their child’s heart,” she said.
Then she and Mateo walked their baby down the hall to what would become a 12-hour operation.
After the surgery, the struggles continued. A valve in the new heart didn’t close completely and leaked blood into another chamber. And the surgery had been hard on Mabel Rose’s kidneys, causing fluid to build up.
Doctors opted for another procedure to fix the valve, during which Mabel Rose went into cardiac arrest. They massaged her heart for 20 minutes while they hooked her up to a machine called ECMO to give her temporary life support.
Trying to wean Mabel Rose from ECMO didn’t go well so they went in for another procedure to repair the valve. It turned out the repair wasn’t necessary and Mabel Rose was weaned from ECMO.
In the ensuing weeks, Mabel Rose developed a fungal infection.
Then just as the family started to look forward to a new life, troubles arose.
‘She is with him’
The fluid buildup brought that one final plea from Hanna.
Hanna described a rainbow forming outside Mabel Rose’s hospital room window as doctors “had the hardest discussion” on Monday.
“None of us knew we would be racing the clock the next morning, running to the roof to give her the gift of feeling the sun’s warmth in her final moments,” Hanna said in the tribute. “Her whole life was in hospitals. But our team gave us the gift of letting her pass in the sunshine.”
She said the doctors and nurses wheeled a bed onto the roof at Shands so Hanna could hold Mabel Rose while she passed.
“We don’t know the exact moment she left, but I remember the way a gust of wind felt to me, a breeze that was suddenly significant and then our doctor telling us, ‘She is with him,’” Hanna said.
“Please join us in honoring her, light a candle, smile, have an extra sassy attitude & give praise to our Lord who is now holding onto Mabel Rose.”
A Celebration of life for Mabel Rose is scheduled for 2 pm Saturday at St. Juliana Cathedral, 4500 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. Wear vibrant colors to the service. Gathering after the service at The Beach Club, 1 7th Ave. N, Lake Worth Beach. Cards and Flowers can be sent to Quattlebaum Funeral Home, 6411 Parker Ave., West Palm Beach.
