Photo of parents embracing baby puts Iowa family, Omaha hospital in national spotlight

BARB ROESSNER / CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL & MEDICAL CENTER
This September 2013 photograph captures a tender embrace between Chad and Wendy Larson of Odebolt, Iowa, and their infant daughter, Katelyn, before her life-saving heart transplant procedure. The photo was selected to be part of the 2015 Children's Hospitals Photo Exhibit.

http://www.livewellnebraska.com/health/photo-puts-iowa-family-omaha-hospital-in-national-spotlight/article_45147df6-d189-11e4-830d-e3d473501fe1.html

Posted: Monday, March 23, 2015 1:20 pm
By Katy Glover / World-Herald staff writer

A moment captured on camera between Iowa parents and their 4-month-old daughter before her heart transplant surgery is receiving national attention.

The photo, taken at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, will be on display this summer in Washington D.C. as part of the 2015 Children’s Hospitals Photo Exhibit.

“The morning of her surgery, she was smiling, cooing and babbling. It was the first time we had seen that side of her since we had been the hospital. It was as if she knew what was going to happen and was letting us know she was going to be OK,” mother Wendy Larson said in a press release.

Katelyn Larson was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy when she was 3 months old; her heart was too weak to pump blood to her body efficiently. A month later, on Sept. 12 2013, she received a life-saving transplant, becoming the third heart recipient at the Omaha hospital.

FULL story at link.