Kiera was born via C-section shortly after 8pm on March 13th, 2002. She weighed 7lbs and was 19 inches long. She had short dark hair, thick dark eye lashes, long slender fingers and a cute button nose. Also, to our doctors’ surprise, she presented with congestive heart failure and respiratory failure. Kiera was immediately transferred to a hospital specializing in infants with heart problems and equipped with a NICU. Once Kiera arrived at Children's Hospital, the doctors immediately searched for the cause of her heart failure. Finally the doctors decided to put Kiera on a last chance lifesaving measure called ECMO. As a precaution, a scan was done on Kiera's brain. The ECMO treatment was cancelled. At approximately 5am on March 14th, Kiera was diagnosed with an arterialvenous malformation (AVM) in the brain and immediately transferred to USCD Medical Center. Once at UCSD, the AVM was more specifically diagnosed as an extremely rare Vein of Galen Malformation, located deep in the center of the brain. Kiera's was particularly large. Kiera underwent two embolization procedures in 3 days and 50% of the blood flow was shut off and re-routed. Her heart rate had somewhat stabilized as did other side effects of the malformation. On March 25th, shortly before Kiera's scheduled third procedure was to take place, doctors discovered the continuous high velocity flow of blood from the last 11 days had done more damage to the left and right hemisphere of Kiera’s brain than was survivable. Kiera passed away in our arms as we held her for the first, last and only time. She gave all she could to extend her stay with us and continually amazed us with her fight and persistence. We are thankful for the time we had with her. Above all else, Kiera reminded us of what is most important and that is our friends and family for which we are most grateful.

We would like to thank all the doctors, nurses and medical staff at the NICU UCSD Medical Center. Without their exceptional care and support we would not have had the twelve special days with our daughter. We are forever grateful.

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