‘Promising, but scary:’ 5-month-old Chesterfield girl to undergo double lung transplant in Texas

CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WWBT) - Baby Kylie has a one-in-a-million disease called Surfactant B Deficiency, which prevents her lungs from working properly.

The life expectancy without a lung transplant is about 3 to 5 months.

Kylie just turned five months old on April 10 and is about to receive the best gift ever: A new set of lungs.

Her parents, Jakob Haddix and Ashley Overfield, left their Chesterfield home in late January to move with their one-year-old son to Houston to give Kylie the best shot at survival. Their nine-year-old daughter initially stayed with her grandparents but recently joined them in Texas.

Texas Children’s Hospital is one of only a few pediatric hospitals in the country equipped to perform lung surgeries on babies, and it has the highest success rate.

Kylie defied the odds to make it onto the transplant list.

She is one of the oldest recorded living babies with Surfactant B Deficiency.

“They only had one other make it this far,” Ashley Overfield said.

After battling rounds of infections, constant testing and a nearly three-month wait, Kylie finally has a donor match.

“It’s promising but then scary,” Overfield said. “It’s complicated. It’s all so...the feelings are just everywhere.”

Kylie could be breathing from new lungs as early as Wednesday.

Overfield says her baby girl has been a fighter since day one.

“They said that most babies that they’ve had are so much sicker,” Overfield said of Kylie’s medical team in Houston. “They say she’s a rockstar. That’s what they tell me every day. They can’t believe she’s going down on her FiO2. It should be going up. They originally thought she might have to be on ECMO because, usually, the disease gets that bad. I’m blown away with how amazing she is. I’m so proud of her. She’s just amazing.”

But this gift of life means another family has to say goodbye to their baby, a sad fact not lost on Kylie’s mother.

“I hope that one day I can meet you and tell you thank you,” Overfield said through tears. “I don’t know how to ever thank you the right way because you’re giving me my child. I’ll always be in your debt. I’m so sorry for what you’re going through, but thank you so much for choosing to donate to not only save my baby but other babies. Your child will live on, and I hope that brings you some peace.”

Assuming the surgery is successful, there is still a risk of rejection.

Kylie will be under close watch for months, and her family may have to spend another year or two in Houston.

But Overfield says the power of prayer and the community’s support is helping them through this difficult time.

The family has received numerous cards, gifts, and messages of support from strangers since 12 On Your Side first aired their story in January.

“I love that God is using her to show that he still answers prayers because I believe that’s what he’s doing, I do,” Overfield said.

Kylie’s Lung Transplant Journey Facebook page has nearly 13,000 followers.

A GoFundMe set up to help cover her medical costs has raised more than $36,000.