Billings Girl Survives Rare Heart Surgery

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By Gillette Vaira

Story Published: Jan 27, 2012 at 10:50 PM MST

Story Updated: Jan 28, 2012 at 2:44 PM MST

BILLINGS - We first introduced you to 12-year-old Josey Guardipee on Dec. 29, 2011, a few days before she flew to Boston to undergo surgery for an extremely rare condition called Mid-Aortic Syndrome. It causes the main artery in the body to narrow and can cause high blood pressure.

"I'm not excited to go there, but I'm happy I'm going there to get this done so I'll be better," Josey said. "So it's just, it's kind of exciting, but it's kind of scary."

Four weeks later, Josey is now back at home from the Children's Hospital in Boston. She didn't feel well enough to speak with us Friday, but her mother said so far things are going well.

During the heart surgery, a team of ten cardiologists replaced her aorta with one made of Gore-Tex, a procedure attempted just four other times. Josey is the only survivor, her mother said.

"She didn't know what her percentage of surviving was and all of that good stuff until on our way back from Minneapolis I told her," said Robin Caufield. "At first she just cried and then she was like, 'Am I in the medical books at Harvard?' Haha. She was all stoked but yeah it's awesome. I'm just glad she's alive."

Josey visits her cardiologist in Billings once a week, but they don't know what happens next.

"Just depends on her body, if she takes it, if she grows anymore," Caufield said. "They don't know. She's the first one to survive that surgery so they'll go from there."

Josey's family thanks everyone who supported them while in Boston. Her mother said her daughter isn't going back to school yet because she still needs time to heal after the surgery.

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