Miracle Child: Now an IUS student, Brittany Raisor captured community’s heart a decade ago

By DAVID A. MANN
David.Mann@newsandtribune.com

May 20, 2008 12:32 pm

— “Looking back, to me, it feels like a nightmare that we dreamed,” Sharon Raisor said as she sat on the front porch of her Clarksville home with members of her family around her.
Her eyes came up, she looked across the porch at her daughter and she recalled what had been the grim prognosis: “There was no chance for her to live at all.”
Sharon’s daughter, Brittany Raisor, was found to have four heart defects after her birth in 1987. The pulmonary arteries on the right side of her heart were blocked and doctors initially could not find any pulmonary arteries on the left side.
As stories of her plight, her odds and the delicate surgical procedures she underwent hit the front pages of this newspaper, she became something of a household name locally. The entire community rallied for her — offering prayers and, in some cases, financial support for her recovery.
She underwent open-heart surgery and astonishingly survived. Doctors said then that if she somehow lived, she would be mentally retarded. And they said that because of a lack of oxygen in her blood, she might someday go to sleep and never wake up.
That was 10 years ago. And the support, the prayers and the hands of a noted Boston cardiologist seemed to have worked for Brittany.
Brittany, who overcame those remarkable odds a decade ago, is now 20 years old. She has a job and her own apartment. And — after graduating with honors from Jeffersonville High School in 2006 — is attending Indiana University Southeast in New Albany.
“Every now and then, I’ll run into somebody and they’ll say, ‘I remember you, you’re the miracle girl,’” Brittany said.
Brittany’s story is not only one that gripped Southern Indiana, but all of metropolitan Louisville and even other areas of the country, where she eventually received treatment. Her father, Charlie Raisor, remembered doing roadblocks and having donation jars set up inside of local businesses.
Initially, doctors in Louisville gave Brittany no hope of survival, Sharon remembered.
“Her records had been sent everywhere and they basically all said the same thing,” she said.
One doctor told her that she could not keep sending her records across the country because of the mounting costs.
“You need to make a decision,” Sharon remembered him saying — a decision on whether she should keep fighting for her daughter’s life.
Finally, after a bit of Internet research, she sent the records to Boston Children’s Hospital, where they eventually took a trip.
“They had no doubt she was going to be OK” after looking at the situation, Sharon said. “Their response was ‘where have you been all this time?’” Charlie added.
It was a reaction that instantly gave them hope, Sharon said. At Boston Children’s, Dr. James Locke, along with assistants, discovered a tiny left pulmonary artery that was unattached to her heart. After it was attached for the first time, she improved. However, there were complications to overcome, being as it was the first time her left lung had ever been used.
Throughout those trials, the community continued pouring out its support.
Marc Meyer, then a staff member at The Evening News who covered her story, recalled the need to constantly update the situation.
“It became almost a matter-of-fact follow-up,” Meyer said.
Every time he penned an update, the community would respond.
“People would say, ‘what’s the latest with Brittany?’” he said.
Sometimes, he would be stopped on the street and asked to give updates. The story was picked up by local television stations, other newspapers and The Associated Press a couple of times.
What stuck out most to him was the Raisors’ faith in God.
“Here was this very, very small baby who was in surgery. The surgeons really didn’t give Brittany any shot at all that she would make it out of the operating room,” he said.
“I think the entire community went with this thing,” he said.
Businesses offered support as well. Papa John’s Pizza founder John Schnatter flew the family to Boston on his personal jet during one of their trips. When Brittany was staying in Boston and her favorite drink — southern favorite Big Red — wasn’t available, UPS shipped some to her without a charge.
“It was amazing how people came out,” Sharon said.
Everyone thought she was going to end up a spoiled brat, said Norma Carr, Brittany’s grandmother.
She’s spoiled, but she’s not a brat, her grandfather, James Carr chimed in.
As her condition improved after the surgeries, Brittany said she began to go back and do all the normal “kid stuff” she had missed. She learned to ride a bike when she was 11 years old. A year later, she learned how to swim.
Though her condition had improved, Charlie said, “I was still scared to death.
“She was a young girl — here comes boys and everything else.”
These days, the family has more down-to-earth concerns. She’s walked away from three automobile accidents since she turned driving age. Two of the accidents weren’t her fault and the third can be blamed on an errant cat that picked the wrong time to try crossing the road.
She’s considering leaving her hometown to pursue a master’s degree in forensic science at Virginia Commonwealth University. Charlie and Sharon are supportive, of course. However, as she spoke of those plans, they winced at the thought of her moving so far away.
Being at this point, living a normal life, “It’s amazing,” Brittany said. “I don’t think words can describe it.”

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