Walking through downtown Little Falls, Minnesota, Paula DiVincenzo and her husband, Joseph, couldn't help but feel out of place.
“We’re Italians from New Jersey,” Paula says, laughing. “We stuck out like a sore thumb.”
For a couple who lives in the shadow of the New York City skyline, the small town of Little Falls was the last place they expected to visit. But in the summer of 2023, this visit marked the latest chapter in their years-long journey, one that began with a life-changing diagnosis.
In January 2020, Paula was diagnosed with breast cancer. After a bilateral mastectomy and three reconstructive surgeries, the cancer returned in 2021. As Paula faced another round of treatment, she and Joseph decided to expand their family through surrogacy, knowing that due to the effects of cancer treatment, a pregnancy would be risky.
After a successful second round of cancer treatment, the DiVincenzos began their search for a surrogate. Their quest led them to Little Falls, where they found “our dream surrogate,” Paula says. On October 21, 2023, their son, Joey, was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, but the joy of his birth quickly turned to worry. Just hours after his birth, doctors revealed that Joey had two congenital heart defects that would require immediate surgery.
“There was just so much thrown at us so quickly,” Paula says. “We were like, ‘What do we do now?’”
Complex care for a tiny heart
Fortunately, a referral from their doctor led them to University of Minnesota professor and pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Pranava Sinha.
Dr. Sinha leads the Pediatric Heart Center at M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital, which offers comprehensive care for children with heart conditions. For Joey, a prenatal ultrasound had suggested the possibility of a ventricular septal defect, or a hole between the two lower chambers of his heart. After his birth, an echocardiogram confirmed the diagnosis, along with a second defect—coarctation of the aorta, a narrowing of the aorta that impedes blood flow.
Typically, infants like Joey undergo surgery within days of birth. However, Dr. Sinha and his team took a holistic approach to Joey’s care, considering the impact of surgery on his entire body. An MRI revealed another complication: a brain bleed, which had to resolve before heart surgery could be performed.
Joey was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit, and the DiVincenzos faced a tense week as their son healed. Despite their anxiety, they found comfort from the hospital’s care team, including social workers and even a therapy dog.
“The support was beyond our wildest dreams,” Paula says.
By Halloween, at 10 days old, Joey underwent heart surgery. The coarctation of the aorta repair went smoothly, but the ventricular septal defect was too close to a delicate heart valve to repair safely at that time. Dr. Sinha postponed that surgery, recommending a follow-up procedure when Joey was six months old.
Beating hearts
After a five-week stay, Joey was stable enough to travel back to New Jersey just in time for his first Christmas at home. In April 2024, he underwent successful surgery to repair the ventricular septal defect in New York City. Today, nearing his second birthday, Joey is thriving.
“You would never know he had any of these issues,” Paula says in awe.
Dr. Sinha remains optimistic about Joey’s long-term prognosis, though he will require follow-up care as he grows. The team is also researching new treatments that would allow repaired tissue to grow with children, reducing the need for multiple surgeries.
The DiVincenzos, now focused on giving back, founded the Beating Hearts Foundation to support families affected by congenital heart defects. Their foundation has already helped over 150 families at with essential needs like transportation, lodging, and food.
“It takes a village when you’re dealing with something like this, and we realize there are a lot of families out there who don’t have the support we had,” Paula says.
As unusual as it sounds, Paula says, she wants every family to feel like hers did when they showed up at a hospital halfway across the country in a city they’d never been to with a newborn son in need of special care.
“We were so far away from home,” she says with a smile. “And still, we felt like we were at home.”
Make a gift to support the Children’s Hospital Patient-Family Assistance Fund and the Pediatric Heart Center.
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