Recently one of our employees heard a story on the radio about a local little girl with an amazing family who has undergone 3 open heart surgeries among several other emergency operations.  We reached out to the family, and they shared their incredible story with us.  Kyleigh is a beautiful two year old little girl.  Her parents found out she had a congenital heart defect where only one chamber of the heart functions and pumps blood to the rest of the body.  Aside from the open heart surgeries, Kyleigh has also gone into cardiac arrest and had to have open chest surgery due to a serious infection.  The only specialist that is able to perform the surgeries needed to save Kyleigh’s life is in Boston.  The family has had to travel there many times, and Kyleigh even had to be life-flighted there.  When the family returned home from that trip, they found out their house had flooded in their absence, and they had to rent a house while their home was being repaired.  Kyleigh’s dad is a local law enforcement officer and works in the National Guard.  He has also stared his own business to help pay Kyleigh’s mounting expenses.  Despite all of the setbacks, the Poppelreiter family holds the hope that Kyleigh will finally have a fully functioning heart one day very soon!

Sandestin Foundation for Kids was able to make a donation to the family to help alleviate some of the financial burden the family is experiencing.  Rachel, Kyleigh’s mom, will keep in touch with the foundation, and we look forward to helping Kyleigh even more in the future!

Here is a picture of Kyleigh.  Rachel will be sending us more and will update them on the website!