Come February 16, Language Art’s teacher, Whitney Cox will be a mom. Cox and her husband are expecting their first child just two days after Valentine’s Day.

The baby girl is nothing short of a miracle.

Cox was born with the hereditary heart disease Tetralogy of Fallot. Children born with Tetralogy of Fallot do not have enough blood pumped to their lungs because of a narrow Pulmonary Valve.

To fix her condition, Cox underwent a serious surgery on March 23 of last year. Cox’s Pulmonary Valve was replaced with a new bioprosthetic “horse” one. The surgery went as well as can be expected. After six rigorous hours of operation, Cox was taken off of bypass. At the end of last school year, Cox was able to resume her teaching status.

The Pulmonary Valve replacement is merely a temporary fix. Depending on how long the valve holds, depends on how soon Cox will undergo another serious surgery. Whether that surgery will take place in five years or 15, is uncertain.

If it is in 15 years, Cox’s doctors are confident that the medical field will, by that time, have come up with new technology, giving Cox the leisure of not having to withstand another surgery.

In the three months of pregnancy, the heart pumps nearly twice as much blood in order to support the body, making these last few days of pregnancy dangerous not only for Cox but for her soon to be baby girl.

When Cox was younger, she didn’t know if she could have children or not.

“I had a cardiologist who told me I couldn’t have children unless I had the surgery,” Cox said.

That being said, Cox and her husband have always known of the risks that go along with having children. At her yearly heart checkup appointments, Cox went by faith in hopes of hearing good news.

Two years ago, Cox was cleared to have children by her cardiologist but soon after, it was recommended that Cox receive heart surgery after difficulties with pregnancies occurred.

The surgery is perhaps the reason this pregnancy is the first to hold in two years.

“There was a big chance, that had I not had the surgery, I would have delivered a pre-mature baby. Pre-mature babies have sustaining heart defects and developmental problems,” Cox said. “In the end, it worked out because I ended up teaching for two years and accomplishing other things that I wanted to do prior to having kids.”

Come February 16, Cox is expecting to take 10 to 12 weeks of maternity leave.

We soon will welcome a miracle baby girl to the Highland family.