For the past six weeks, one of Niverville’s youngest residents has been fighting for her life from an Edmonton hospital bed while her family sits vigil, awaiting a miracle.
Six-month-old Daisy Faith is the daughter of Mike and Courtney Bouwman, and a sister to three older brothers. She awaits a heart transplant. But before she’s even eligible, she’s got to climb a proverbial mountain.
On February 28, 2025, Daisy was born pink, feisty, and, by all outward appearances, healthy and strong. It came as a welcome surprise since the Bouwmans were fully aware that Daisy had a serious heart condition. There had been a risk that she’d need to be rushed into immediate surgery upon birth.
At 20 weeks in utero, doctors discovered the concerns following a routine checkup. Soon after, the Bouwmans met with a cardiologist of the Children’s Heart Clinic. An ultrasound confirmed the couple’s worst fears.
Daisy was diagnosed with not one but four relatively major heart malfunctions, including holes between the chambers, a reverse orientation, a narrowing of the pulmonary valve, and transposition of the greater arteries.
“This is when Mike and I realized how serious her heart defect was,” says Courtney. “We knew that God had a plan for our little girl, and we needed to trust him.”
What the couple faced during the coming months was daunting, without question, but the terrain wasn’t altogether unfamiliar. Mike, too, had been born with a heart defect and was subjected to five open heart surgeries. Today, he lives a normal and productive life.
Despite the severity of Daisy’s condition, she defied the odds following birth, although she remained in the neonatal intensive care unit for observation.
Within a week, though, she began having occasional episodes where she stopped breathing.
By five weeks, Daisy’s breathing had resolved and she was sent home. The coming weeks were filled with doctor appointments and scans, but she was growing and developing in all the ways an infant should.
At four months, the cardiologist discovered a membrane in the upper heart chamber that would eventually affect Daisy’s blood pressure. The family readied themselves for Daisy’s first surgery, a procedure that would precede the full reconstructive surgery that doctors hoped could be delayed until she was bigger and stronger.
On July 28, the Bouwmans left their three sons with family members and flew to Edmonton. The membrane surgery was a success.
“When Mike and I got to see her, she was fully sedated, but that didn’t last for long,” Courtney recalls. “She is such a feisty girl and woke up shortly after we saw her. She tried to rip her breathing tube out. Thankfully, Mike grabbed her hands to stop her, and the nurses had to give her more sedation to calm down.”
Unfortunately, Daisy suffered a cardiac arrest that night and had to be attached to an ECMO, a machine which provides heart and lung support.
“Dr. Anand sat us down and told us that anyone who ends up on the heart and lung machine has a 65 percent chance of recovery,” Courtney says. “They couldn’t tell us why she arrested, or if she had any damage to her brain or other organs.”
Daisy made marked improvement, day after day, and the situation was looking up.
Then she suffered another cardiac arrest.
“They were just prepping her to close her chest when her eyes widened, her oxygen and blood pressure quickly dropped, and her heart stopped. They performed CPR for 23 minutes and got the ECMO machine hooked up to her once more. Mike and I were in the room while this was happening, and all I could say while watching my daughter get CPR was ‘God, save my baby!’ over and over.”
Daisy’s heart did come back and, over the following hours specialists from across the country joined a video call to discuss their young patient’s situation.
“The next few days were probably the worst days of our lives,” adds Courtney. “We were told that Daisy’s heart was dysfunctional and she might not be able to survive coming off ECMO. They came up with some plans to put her on a ventricular assist device (VAD) as a bridge to a heart transplant, but later they told us that could not be an option because she had suffered a minor stroke at some point. We were faced with the reality that our baby might not survive and we might need to let her go.”
The Bouwmans were soon joined by their sons, accompanied by grandparents, to see their sister for what might be the last time.
“Our boys were so incredible, and also heartbroken,” she says. “They had so many questions that we couldn’t answer, and we did too.”
Against all odds, Daisy’s heart survived the removal of the ECMO. Apart from some minor setbacks, her chest was soon closed up and the slow removal of tubes and devices began.
“Every day since then has been a gift from God,” says Courtney. “She was very slow in weaning sedation and medication. We have bumps, like high blood pressure and a high heartrate. She is a confusing little girl and keeps the doctors scratching their heads.”
On August 31, Daisy underwent a second surgery, one that doctors had hoped to postpone until she was more mature. This time, the plan was to install an internal VAC, close the holes in her chambers, and reroute some of the arteries. It was a risky procedure.
If all went well, it would buy Daisy some time as she awaits a complete heart transplant.
Once again, Daisy pulled through.
Every day since then has been a day of either triumph or trial. Daisy has had a pacemaker installed and a fragment of a broken feeding tube removed from her stomach. All these procedures have left her with a slightly deflated lung which the doctors are trying to correct.
Support of Family and Friends
When life deals out tough experiences, one is ever grateful for the dedicated support of family and friends. Courtney and Mike are blessed with those individuals in spades.
From the very first moment the journey started to look difficult, the couple has been surrounded by loved ones who have flown out to hold them up with arms of encouragement.
Recognizing that the foreseeable future looked uncertain, friends launched crowdfunding campaigns to help sustain them financially while Mike is off work.
“We started receiving etransfers and messages from people we knew and people we didn’t know who were praying for Daisy and for us,” Courtney says. “We knew immediately that God was doing something big.”
At the same time, the couple’s young boys began making bracelets to give to family and friends, serving as reminders to pray for their sister. A niece posted a photo of the bracelet on Instagram using the hashtag #miraclefordaisy.
Immediately these Daisy bracelets circulated beyond the family and the couple started receiving messages of hope and encouragement from afar .
Uncertain Future
It’s approaching two months since Daisy underwent her first surgery and progress has been slow in getting her stabilized and ready for the transplant list. So far, everyone holds out hope, including her doctors.
“The hospital and staff have been absolutely incredible. These doctors and healthcare professionals care for our baby like she is their own. They also care about our family and taking care of us.”
When it comes to telling their sons the hard truth about their sister’s situation, even there the staff have been integral, explaining the situation to the Bouwman children in terms they can understand and deal with.
“The next hard conversation we had to have was about staying in Edmonton long-term,” says Courney. “We have no idea how long this process will take, but the doctors have told us to expect to wait about a year for a donor heart. I was terrified to tell [our boys] this, but once we did, they took it so well. We told them we would have them come stay with us and do some homeschooling. They were very excited about that.”
For the time being, the boys are in Niverville, staying with family while still being enrolled in their local school. Courtney and Mike receive a small stipend from Manitoba Health to cover hotel and food costs while they wait out Daisy’s future.
Each day is a new day, each moment spent with their wee daughter a precious gift.