Aubree Blake, age 10, was born with a coarctation of the aorta, a congenital heart defect that causes the heart to work harder to pump blood through the body.
Aubree Blake, age 10, is a bit of a TikTok star thanks to her candid videos sharing her experiences as a young lady living with a heart condition.
At 8 days old, Aubree was diagnosed with a coarctation of the aorta, a birth defect where a portion of the aorta is narrower than usual causing the heart to work harder to pump blood through the body.
At the time of Aubree’s birth, her dad, Christopher, who is now EMS coordinator for access and navigation, was working as a flight paramedic for Akron Children’s.
“We brought her home and all seemed fine,” he said. “When she was 7 days old, I noticed she was breathing fast. I counted her breaths. Normal is 40 to 60 and she was taking 96 breaths a minute.”
Suspecting Aubree might have a coarctation, he called a fellow nurse who encouraged him to take his daughter to get checked.
“I figured I was either going to come across as a nervous new dad or we were going to make a good catch,” said Christopher.
In 2023, Aubree had her second major heart surgery, an aortic augmentation, to allow for better blood flow and resolve her persistent high blood pressure.
The ER doctor decided to admit Aubree and by the next morning she had no femoral pulse in the artery that carries blood to the lower half of the body. An echocardiogram confirmed the coarctation.
“As far as heart defects go this is the better one to have because they don’t have to open the chest to correct it,” said Christopher.
With her heart the size of a walnut, her surgeons were able to go in through her side chest wall and place clamps above and below the defect and cut it out and suture the aorta back together.
Aubree recovered well from the surgery. She didn’t require another procedure until she was 16 months old when she had a heart catheterization to help stretch her aorta.
“As she got older, she started suffering from persistent high blood pressure as a result of the stricture,” said Christopher.
A cardiac MRI at age 9 showed Aubree needed aortic augmentation surgery.
Through Wishes Can Happen, Aubree was granted a trip to Florida where she visited Universal Studios, Disney World and Sea World.
“This surgery is much scarier because they need to open her chest and put her on a bypass machine while they place a donor patch that helps make the vessel larger to allow for better blood flow,” said Christopher.
In preparation for the surgery with cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Robert Stewart, Aubree decided she wanted to document her story and educate others about her heart condition. Christopher began sharing Aubree’s journey on TikTok (@cblake0601) and tagging fellow well known paramedic @thesleepyparamedic and his @croissantarmy and started gaining a following.
“We started out by creating an educational video about what a coarctation is and sharing updates leading up to surgery,” said Christopher.
The hope was people would leave positive comments and words of encouragement through Aubree’s heart surgery journey and it worked. The man behind @thesleepyparamedic reached out to Christopher to ask if it was OK to ask his followers to donate money towards a trip for Aubree’s family.
“That wasn’t something we were expecting,” said Christopher.
Aubree is a 5th grader at North Canton Intermediate School where she plays flute in the band and just started playing volleyball.
Through Wishes Can Happen, Aubree was granted a trip to Florida where she visited Universal Studios, Disney World and Sea World.
“Following her surgery, she was doing incredible,” Christopher said. “They pulled out all her lines and chest tubes. She even refused all pain meds because they made her nauseous.”
A follow-up echocardiogram showed an unexpected complication, a pericardial effusion, which meant fluid was collecting around Aubree’s heart. While they tried to manage it with medication at home, the effusion got larger, so Aubree needed to return to the hospital to have it drained.
“She had become pretty symptomatic,” said Christopher. “She was readmitted to the PICU where they drained off 500 mls of fluid.”
Aubree no longer takes any medications for high blood pressure and has no restrictions on her activities.
Now fully recovered – her last procedure was 1 year ago – Aubree is enjoying being a normal 5th grader at North Canton Intermediate School where she plays flute in the band and just started playing volleyball.
“She has no restrictions and doesn’t have to take any medications,” said Christopher.
Aubree, who can be seen in her TikTok video running out of the hospital after her discharge smiling, is looking forward to putting those running skills to use when she resumes participating in Girls on the Run this spring.
