It is a team effort as family friends Stephanie Birmingham (far left) and Mike Birmingham (far right) join Team Neviah with (l-r) then 2 -year-old Neviah, mom Rana (Murphy) (expecting Kendrick) and dad, Danny Webster during an annual American Heart Association Heart Walk a few years ago.
Heart Hero
By Meagan Molseed
mmolseed@thefayettecountyunion.com
“God has big plans for Neviah,” Rana Webster said of her 6 year-old daughter, who recently underwent her second open-heart surgery since birth.
“We have relied on our faith and the support of family and friends, as well as our daughter’s strength. She has been through a lot in her six years, but she continues to thrive.”
The first child of former high school sweethearts Rana (Murphy) a 2003 North Fayette graduate, and her husband, Danny Webster, a 2004 Valley graduate, Neviah was diagnosed with the congenital heart disease, dextro-transposition just hours after her birth in 2011. It is a heart condition in which the two main arteries carrying blood away from the heart are reversed
“When Neviah was born, things seemed good,” the young mother remembered. “Her oxygen levels were low at first, but we knew she had swallowed some of my water during the birth, so we and the doctors thought the levels may have been off from that.”
Shortly after Neviah was born, however, the new parents would soon learn that they were about to face a journey with their brand-new daughter that neither one would have been able to anticipate.
“I was able to go up to the “Mommy and Me” floor with Neviah in my arms for recovery shortly after she was born,” Rana recalled of the hours after the infants birth.
“Shortly after that, the nurses came in to took Neviah for a couple of routine checks. They took her out of my arms and said they’d be right back,” she related softly, noting that it wasn’t long before she and husband Danny started to worry.