Claremore Mom Helps Pass Law After Doctors Miss Baby's Heart Defect

A determined Claremore mother has helped pass a state law to protect newborns from heart defects.

Ashley Brown's daughter nearly died from a heart defect that could have been caught shortly after she was born. Most hospitals already perform the test that detects it, but as Brown learned the hard way, it wasn't required by law.

Little Fayelen is like most 2-year-olds; she loves to color and is always at her mom's side.

There's some mornings when I just wake up and look at her, and I just have to thank God that I have another day with her," Brown said.

Fayelen was born with cor atriatriatum, which is a heart defect that blocks the flow oxygen in the blood. It kills 75 percent of the babies born with it. The defect wasn't noticed when she was born, because her hospital wasn't required to test for it.

"She was actually in heart failure from the moment of birth," Brown said.

Three months later, Fayelen became lethargic and doctors then found the heart defect. She was flown to a hospital in Dallas, where she had open heart surgery.

After the surgery Brown was determined that no Oklahoma family would have to go through a similar ordeal, so she helped State Representative Dan Kirby get a law passed that requires hospitals and birthing centers to perform what's called a pulse oximetry test on all newborns.

It's non-invasive and Brown said it's simple to conduct.

"When you go to the emergency room and they put that clip on your finger, that's a Pulse Ox screen. With babies, it looks like a little band-aid that they can put around their finger or they can put around their big toe, or sometimes their wrist," Brown said.

Congenital heart defects are the most common type of heart defects in the U.S., according to the CDC, affecting nearly 40,000 newborns every year. It's the leading cause of infant deaths.

Brown said she expects the test to save lives and prevent other families from dealing with tragedy.

"My heart was broken when I knew that this was still going on, there's still babies that this can be their fate, and now there's going to be a lot of babies that, that won't be their fate," Brown said.

The law still has to be signed by the governor. Representative Kirby said he expects that to happen sometime within the next week.