Peyton Jane Donaldson

Peyton Jane Donaldson was born on August 5, 2003.  During the first few weeks after her birth, Peyton's mother, Rebecca, and Peyton had to return to the doctor several times because Peyton was suffering from constant flu symptoms that wouldn’t go away.  They were continuously sent home by doctors who assured Rebecca that her daughter was okay.  When Peyton was eight weeks old, on her mother’s insistence, an echocardiogram was performed.  The results of this exam showed that Peyton was, in fact, far from okay. 

She was diagnosed with restrictive cardiomyopathy, a very rare disorder in which the heart chambers are unable to fill with blood properly because of stiffness of the heart.  Eventually, Peyton’s vital organs would be denied the oxygen they needed to function, and Peyton would die.

 

To further complicate her condition, she  was also diagnosed with persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN), a cardiopulmonary disorder wherein the blood pressure inside the lungs remains so high after birth that blood cannot properly circulate.  Her parents would later discover that children exposed to Paxil during pregnancy are more than six times more likely to develop this deadly condition.

For Peyton - there was only one possibility for survival. She needed a heart transplant.

When Peyton was just over 2 months old she received a donor heart.  Although the transplant was successful, due to all of the medications Peyton must take to keep her body from rejecting her heart, she will likely need a kidney transplant in the future. 

Peyton’s mother took Paxil during the pregnancy because she and her doctor thought that it was safe.