A Texas 3-month-old who had just undergone her second open-heart surgery couldn’t stop crying even when her mother tried just about everything to soothe her.
Laura Catron was 21 weeks pregnant when the baby she was carrying was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.
“Every time we kept going to the doctor, we kept finding out it was worse,” the first-time mother recalled to ABC News.
We love Lola, she's helping us #FinishThisFight https://t.co/05NQ1bduWf
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) January 11, 2017
Still, Catron and her husband of nearly two years Bryan, got a glimmer of hope from doctors at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
Their daughter Lola, now 3 months old, is to have three open-heart surgeries before she can get a heart transplant. She had her second surgery last week and the third is slated for when she turns 3 years old.
Unfortunately, due to a work commitment Catron’s husband was away while Lola recuperated in the hospital from her second surgery. The baby had just thrown up medication use to soothe post-surgery migraines, and Catron was doing everything she could think of to calm her baby girl down.
“I tried singing. I tried rocking her, putting on cartoons. I put on ‘Paw Patrol,’ she didn’t like it. We were trying everything and then my mom was like, ‘She loves watching football with her dad. Put that on,'” Catron recalled.
And immediately, Lola quieted down.
The Fort Worth, Texas, mother added that her husband and baby Lola have a tradition where Lola dresses up in a Cowboys onesie and watches the game with her dad.
“And she’s quiet all day,” Catron added. “It’s the funniest thing, but she loves it. I always thought it was sitting with her dad.”
The mother filmed exactly what happened so she could share it with her husband and later put it on Facebook where it not only went viral, but got the attention of the Dallas Cowboys organization. They tweeted, “We love Lola, she’s helping us #FinishThisFight.”
They even sent the family Cowboys gear for Lola to wear while she’s watching their games.
Catron told ABC News that although she’s grateful for the Cowboys gift, it’s more important to her to spread awareness of congenital heart defects “because I want someone to either find a cure or find something that can help my daughter.”
“Right now, she can’t play sports [when she grows up,] she won’t be able to have a baby, she won’t be able to live as full as a life as I was able to,” the mother said. “This is really cute story, but I want everyone to know what this is really about for us.”
