For a special Marion County girl, a heartbreak for one family was a miracle for her.
Mackynlee Bedwell received a heart transplant Saturday at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson after months of waiting.
After getting the news Friday evening that a heart was available, Mackynlee did a video snap chat to some of her nursing friends, “Hey, it’s Mackynlee,” she says in the video, “So I got a big surprise. I got a new heart!”
On Sunday, she had to go back into surgery because her drainage tubes were not working property, but her mother, Susan Bedwell, advised that Mackynlee’s heart function is good.
“She is unbelievably amazing,” Susan said.
Mackynlee was born to Susan and Mark Bedwell in 2009. A day after she was born, she was flown to Philadelphia, Pa., where it was determined she only had one working chamber in her heart, instead of four. What she has endured is multiple surgeries both in Pennsylvania and in Jackson.
She came to have her first surgery when she was just four days old. The surgery was a success and she was able to come back to Mississippi after a month. Her second surgery was six months later, and she suffered complications.She developed bleeding on the brain that caused her to have seizures. It was also determined she had difficulty swallowing and had to be fed by a feeding tube. At this point in her fight, she was considered developmentally delayed.
Mackynlee had other ideas, and by age 2 she was thriving. She was no longer on a feeding tube and no longer was the term developmentally delayed attached to her. She had become a real fighter.
At age 5 in May 2014, she had to have another surgery this time to make the blood flow from the lower part of the body to the lungs. She developed blood clots and infection that prevented her from being able to start school the following year.
After a year of fighting in the fall of the 2015, Mackynlee started the first grade at Columbia Academy. Once again Mackynlee flourished, this time achieving straight As and no absences.
“We were so proud of her,” Susan said.
During second and third grades, Mackynlee began to deal with sickness again. Eventually she was diagnosed with Post-Fontan Protein Losing Enteropathy, a complication that has a high mortality rate. To make it worse, her body did not respond to the medicines. After the first nine weeks of the fourth grade, Mackynlee had to withdraw from school and take online classes at home.
This January Mackynlee was placed on the heart transplant list. In April she began spiking a fever, which is a sign at heart failure. On April 24, Mackynlee was admitted to UMC in Jackson, where she would be treated with intravenous medicines while waiting for a new heart. She was now at the top of the list.
Susan posted on her Facebook page on May 5 that in the past 14 months Mackynlee has been an inpatient in hospitals 86 days and been admitted 19 times.
Susan repeatedly posted how positive and upbeat Mackynlee has been during the entire ordeal.
On Thursday, Aug. 1 Susan posted: “We’re still hanging in there. Trying to take one day at a time. Continuing to wait and pray. We do not understand nor like God’s timing right now. Even though we have known from the beginning of this journey there’s no way to know a time frame, the five of us thought (hoped) we wouldn’t still be waiting on transplant by the time school stated back in session. We know God has a purpose for everything and nothing happens ‘by accident.’”
Little did she know that the next day a heart would become available.
Susan has since posted Mackynlee has been taking baby steps in the right direction and requested everyone keep on praying for her.
Pictured Above: Mackynlee Bedwell poses with a nurse at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Many prayers were answered Saturday when the Marion County girl received a heart transplant. | Photo submitted
