COTA for a Beat for Harper

Our Story

Harper Anne-Renee is a six-month-old baby girl who is always full of smiles and love. Harper was born in February and underwent an unexpected eleven-hour surgery at Duke Hospital to correct a condition of her Aortic Arch known as Coarctation of the Aorta at one week old. Due to the severity and stress of the operation, Harper was placed on ECMO and a ventilator for an extended amount of time. Harper was diagnosed prenatally with Atrioventricular Septal Defect, Coarctation of the Aorta, Situs Inversus, and Heterotaxy Syndrome. During her initial surgery Harper made a small donation of her Thymus Gland to hopefully help another child who may need the gland to help better their immunity and life threatening condition. Harper is a strong heart warrior and always has a way of warming all her family and caregivers at Duke Hospital’s hearts. In June, due to ongoing complications and to avoid multiple open heart surgeries that may not even help to correct her condition, it was decided that the best option to hopefully help this little bundle of life was to hopefully get a heart transplant. Ms. Harper has underwent a lengthy amount of testing and was successfully admitted to the heart transplant recipient list. During this trying time Harper has had issues with her breathing and is currently on the ventilator due to a bacterial infection and hopefully will recover with little to no issues so that we begin the road of recovery with a new heart.

Our goal is to raise $25,000 for COTA in honor of Harper to assist with a lifetime of transplant-related expenses, such as her many medicines, many doctor’s visits and later transplants throughout life!

John 15:13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.