Newborn Brynleigh Peck’s Fight for Survival

By Nancy Riedell

Brynleigh Peck was born with a condition called Hypoplastic Aortic Arch w/Coarctation of Aorta. This is a congenital heart defect where a section of the aorta (the main artery carrying blood from the heart) is abnormally narrow, often accompanied by a smaller-than-normal aortic arch. The symptoms in newborns are difficulty breathing, poor feeding, lethargy, and poor weight gain.

Brynleigh’s aortic valve was too small to pump the necessary blood and oxygen to her little heart. On her fourth day of life, she received open-heart surgery, that lasted a minimum of eight hours to repair her small valves so she could pump the necessary oxygen and blood she needs.

In order for Brynleigh to receive the care and surgery that she needed, she had to be transported to Salt Lake City where neonatal heart specialists are on staff to perform the type of surgery that she needed.

On March 14th, a benefit dinner was held at the Ely Elks Lodge on Campton Street to help Brynleigh’s parents, Hunter and Coralee Peck, with the incredible expenses of the necessary open-heart surgery required to save Brynleigh’s young life. Along with the proceeds from the tickets sold for the dinner, Brynleigh’s grandmother Michele Hay-Gregersen, put together and created spa baskets. These spa baskets sold for $5 each and all the money from the sale went to the fundraiser created for little Brynleigh.

Hunter and Coralee were overwhelmed with the generous response and wish to say “Thank you all for all the love, prayers, calls, donations, thoughts, and kind words. The support from everyone has been absolutely amazing! The support from family, relatives, friends, neighbors, and complete strangers, near and far, has been so humbling. And I’d like to personally thank our little community for once again stepping up in our time of need. You have always been there for us.”

Brynleigh arrived home from Salt Lake City on Sunday, March 23rd. She spent close to a month in the hospital and was greeted warmly by both family and friends upon her arrival in Ely.