Festival Story "My Granddaughter Miss Mia" by Shona Peterson

"In November, 2011 my granddaughter Mia was born at 37 1/2 weeks weighing 4 lbs. 2 oz. We were not aware at the time that she had anything wrong with her. We were under the impression that she just wasn’t getting enough nutrition and needed to be born early.

After running several tests, we got the diagnosis that Mia has a chromosome anomaly. She was missing 62 genes on her 13th chromosome. We were given a list of many things that this could mean for her throughout her life such as severe seizures, learning disabilities, heart defects and missing parts of her brain. Many tests were run and it was discovered that Mia was deaf in one ear. Through the early stages of life we realized that due to her diagnosis her muscle tone was very low. When Mia was only 7 weeks old we took her to Primary Children's Hospital for a follow up just to check on a small hole in her heart. At that point in time we were blessed enough when the technician caught a glimpse of something he wasn’t sure about. He called the doctor in. A few days later we took her in for an angiogram where they discovered that she has RCAPA. This means that her right coronary artery was attached to her pulmonary artery rather than her aorta. The right side of her heart was not getting any oxygenated blood. They gave her a blood transfusion and scheduled us to come back in 4 days for an open heart surgery. To my knowledge this was the first right coronary artery surgery of this kind to be performed at Primary Children’s. 

Dr. AK Kaza performed her surgery and said she was a miracle. The surgery could not have gone any better. She was in the cardiac ICU for 1 week and then on the recovery floor for an additional 2 weeks. 

Mia has since had multiple check ups but no additional surgeries. Everything is perfect and they now consider her heart to be totally normal. Mia truly is quite a little miracle. Without this diagnosis that was caught by a young technician doing her echocardiogram, she would would have died before we would have known anything was wrong. Next month Mia will celebrate her 7th birthday.  She is a happy and healthy little girl.

In 2014, our family decorated and donated a tree to the Festival of Trees in her honor. We named it "Mia's Grateful Heart". We were so grateful for all the time and care the doctors and nurses at Primary Children's Hospital gave to our sweet angel. 

The very first tree I did was in 2003 when a young man in our ward was being treated for a brain tumor and I helped the Young Women do it as a project for their personal progress.

Then after Mia came to our family, we witnessed the love and amazing medical miracles that occur at Primary Children’s. I felt like Festival was the perfect place to pay it forward! Kathy Bess invited me to be on her committee and then to be a part of this amazing group of people that serve on the Executive Board! How could I have ever said No? 

We are blessed as a family to be able to love our sweet Mia everyday and watch her grow and thrive. We are also blessed to be able to donate something each year to Festival of Trees to help other special children who need care at this amazing hospital! 

Festival of Trees 2015 "Waiting for Santa"

Festival 2016 "We Believe"

2017 Santa's Campsite

Nyla Jane the 2017 Festival Poster Child couldn't resist playing in the adorable camper

My awesome family, friends and amazing employees help us to create and make the items we donate and it is always the highlight of our year!

Every day we realize what a blessing it is to have Primary Children’s Hospital."

Editor's Note: Shona Peterson has served in many positions at Festival of Trees over the years but this year she serves as our Festival Co-chair.