Maddie -- Another Miracle Girl!

Maddie is another CMN Miracle Girl. She was born in Sioux Falls on April 10, 2002, with seven congenital heart defects. At the time, only two hospitals in the country, one in San Francisco, one in Ann Arbor, Michigan, was able to take on the challenge of the surgery necessary to fix Maddie's heart.

Maddie's mom and dad, Samantha and Josh Pauli, were both students at DSU in Madison. Imagine facing traveling across the country with a newborn daughter and all those medical bills on a student budget! Fortunately, CMN was there to help. They covered the expense of the flights (including dad Josh's first flight ever, in an air ambulance from Sioux Falls to Ann Arbor!) and lodging.

In her first 13 months, Maddie flew to Michigan with her folks three times for three different surgeries. Now she's five and healthy, happy, and eager for kindergarten (she nodded shyly, covering her grin with her hands). She has yearly checkups and faces a couple more surgeries in the future, to replace her artificial heart valves to keep up with her growth. Those surgeries won't be as scary, says Dad -- on a scale of 1 to 10, where the doctors ranked the earlier surgeries 9s, the coming surgeries should be 2s. Atta-girl, Maddie!