California Baby Girl Born With Just 1 Lung Beats Odds, Survives Major Surgery To Reunite With Her Twin

Charlotte Valliere Karla Valliere Olivia Valliere Baby Charlotte Rady Children's Hospital Baby with 1 lung

By Joel Brussels , Parent Herald Aug 19, 10:54 am

Photo: (Photo : HANNAH MCKAY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

A California baby girl has beaten the odds to reunite with her twin sister and return home with her family after an extended six-month stay at a hospital in San Diego, according to CBS8.

Charlotte and her twin Olivia were born to Joshua and Karla Valliere last December. Problems started to appear the following month as baby Charlotte was suddenly admitted to Rady Children's Hospital. She was having breathing difficulties and was diagnosed with a respiratory infection.

The Vallieres, at first, did not know what was wrong with their baby. Olivia was perfectly healthy, and although Charlotte had been born with just one lung, she had no issues after birth.

Baby Charlotte born with just one lung

Karla told "Good Morning America" that Charlotte's one lung grew like 1.5 sizes, compensating for the lack of the second one. She said that doctors ran all the studies on her, and she was totally fine, including her oxygenation. Everything was 100 percent, so they were cleared to go after four days in the hospital.

Karla said everything was great for six weeks at home as they enjoyed their time with the twins. Charlotte's condition, however, took a turn for the worse as she started having breathing problems.

The Vallieres took their daughter back to Rady on January 29, and the infant was admitted and placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO).

Dr. Matthew Brigger, the chief of the pediatric otolaryngology division at Rady Children's Hospital, started seeing Charlotte for treatment. She would eventually be diagnosed with complete tracheal rings and tracheal stenosis.

This meant that Charlotte had a birth defect with her airway where the rings in her trachea were abnormal. She also had an abnormal narrowing of the trachea or windpipe. The infant also had a blood vessel wrapped around her trachea.

Baby Charlotte survives major surgery

Brigger said that this set of anomalies, with the single lung and the way the aorta was wrapped around the trachea itself and the trachea being this narrow, is relatively rare. Charlotte's surgery was a major one; to do it, Brigger and the rest of her doctors had to wait until she was big enough. The reason is that she and her twin sister Olivia had been born a few weeks early, and she was still small for her age.

Brigger told Charlotte's parents that if they could get through surgery, he was will give her a 50-50 chance. In reality, he is thinking more of 20 percent of getting through surgery at the time as he knew how much they had to go through for Charlotte's survival.

Her surgery was a success despite those low odds, according to Meaww. Brigger said Charlotte is a fighter, and they got to do the surgery. He added that she sailed through surgery.