Louisiana, 6, helps, 1 cup lemonade at a time
WELSH, Louisiana (AP) – When Aria LaPointe, 6, of Lake Arthur, learned that an infant had been diagnosed with a heart defect, she wanted to help.
Although LaPointe never met the baby or her family, she wanted to help cover medical and travel expenses by setting up a lemonade stand in her great-aunt’s driveway in Lake Arthur. With the help of her community, LaPointe raised over $ 434 to help baby Anna-Kate Johnson and her family.
“We planned it for baby Anna-Kate because she has heart problems and we wanted to help her and fundraise,†LaPointe said.
LaPointe, with the help of his family, made four gallons of lemonade, two gallons of peach tea, cookies and brownies for sale. Others donated brownies and a cake to help the cause.
“I learned to be kind, kind and to help others,†she said of the experience.
On October 1, LaPointe met Anna-Kate and her family for the first time and gave the family the money she collected.
“It was very overwhelming,†Anna-Kate’s mother Kayleigh Johnson of Welsh said of the supportive outpouring the family has received. “We are very grateful to everyone who has helped pray for us and spread the word to raise awareness about pulmonary atresia.
“People we don’t know have reached out to us with love and prayers and we are grateful to them. It has brought us as a family closer to God through our faith.
Anna-Kate, 3 months old, spent her first 86 days in hospital after being diagnosed with pulmonary atresia, a birth defect of the heart where the valve that controls blood flow from the heart to the lungs does not form not at all . She also suffers from arrhythmia.
“Her birth was perfect,†Johnson said. “After I received my epidural, I was dilating in no time and she was ready to come.”
Kayleigh and her husband Andrew spent the next six hours with their daughter before things turned sour.
“Her grandmother came to visit her and when she turned on the light she noticed how purple Anna-Kate’s lips were,†she said.
A flurry of activity quickly followed as nurses rushed into the room, she recalls. Anna-Kate was put on oxygen and rushed to the NICU where she underwent testing before being airlifted to a children’s hospital in New Orleans.
She had her first heart operation on July 8 to install a shunt and conduit. The shunt then developed a clot which required further procedures.
She was finally released from the hospital on September 24 where she first met her brothers William, 4, and Luke, 3.
She still has a long way to go, Johnson said.
“She is still considered critical and faces another heart operation around 4 to 6 months,” she said.
The Johnsons said they were grateful to everyone who holds poker races, softball tournaments, auctions and other fundraisers to help the family. They hope to pay it forward by helping other families, including many from southwest Louisiana, whom they met in the hospital.
“We want to spread love and prayers in any way we can,†Johnson said.