MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A special smile and laugh belong to an 18-month-old adorable little girl named Ari Ann Cox.
Her parents, Quiley and Lee Ann Cox, will tell you their energetic daughter has never met a camera or a stranger she didn’t love.
“When you meet her, you fall in love with her smile,” Lee Ann said. “She’s a very friendly baby. You just can’t get enough of Ari.”
“Even if she doesn’t know you and hangs around you for a few seconds, she’ll bond with you.” Quiley said.
It’s hard not to bond with Ari Ann, who’s into just about everything around the family’s Memphis home.
“She’s walking now, running around tearing up stuff and pulling things out of the cabinet and shelf, but I love every minute of it,” Quiley said.
Her mom and dad thought Ari Ann was a healthy baby when she was born. That was until she turned 5 months old and began having breathing and eating problems.
“We noticed she was not taking the whole bottle. She would take a few sips and pull the bottle away,” Quiley said.
Lee Ann took Ari Ann to her pediatrician for a checkup, and the doctor noticed something was wrong
“And he just said…has she always made that noise?” Lee Ann said.
That noise would be far more serious. The pediatrician recommended she be taken to Le Bonheur to see the specialists, who carefully examined and X-rayed her.
“All I could see was the left side of her heart was three times the size of the right size,” Quiley said.
Doctors determined Ari Ann was born with a heart defect. An obstruction was around her valve. Dr. Alex Arevelo said Ari Ann would need surgery to fix her heart.
“She was very sick when she came into the hospital, very nerve wrecking and touch and go,” Arevelo said.
Her mom remembers her feelings right before her baby was taken into surgery.
“She’s so little, and she’s only been here for five months. I kind of feel like I just got her,” Lee Ann said. “My mother-in-law came in and said, ‘Don’t let her go before I get there,’ and she came and prayed for her little heart.”
It was a delicate three-hour procedure as the Cox family prayed.
“I told God to touch her, watch over her and guide the surgeons’ hands,” Quiley said.
The surgery at Le Bonheur was a success. These days Ari Ann is doing great walking and trying to talk, and her parents said she is teaching them lessons about life.
“She’s just the strongest little girl, and she’s taught me how to value life,” Lee Ann said.
Ari Ann’s life is filled with joy. She’s a little girl embracing and hugging a heart and one who has a heart that beats strongly because of the hospital known for exceptional care, Le Bonheur.
“Being there, we got to see Le Bonheur is a special place as far as the children they take care of and the doctors there,” Quiley said.
“Just looking at it and how big it is and it looks indestructible,” Lee Ann said. “I relate that to her heart and just happy that it’s beating.”
