When 5-year-old Sienna Barton’s family pulled into their Saratoga Springs neighborhood, they were met with pink and purple streamers, balloons, and homemade posters waving in the air. Neighbors lined the streets to cheer for the girl who had spent almost three years fighting for her life.
“We knew we had a big village of support, but I didn’t expect it to be so many people, so many people have been behind us helping our family,” her mom, Francesca Barton, told KTVX.
Sienna was born with a congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare condition where the left side of the heart doesn’t fully develop and can’t pump blood properly. According to Intermountain Health, she underwent two open-heart surgeries before developing severe heart failure. To keep her alive while she waited for a new heart, doctors implanted a device to help her heart pump blood.
After about 28 months on the transplant list, the Bartons flew to Texas for the surgery. “We flew there May 28 and she got her heart transplant June 25,” Francesca said. “And then we were required to stay 90-100 days in Texas post-transplant.”
In total, Sienna spent 975 days in the hospital, according to KSL. Her dad, Fano Barton, told the station, “She was two years old when she went into the hospital and now, she’s five.”
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