LONDON, ONT. -- Since she was born, three-and-a-half-month-old Riot Presley Snow has been nothing but a bundle of joy for her mother and father, but that joy has come with its share of anguish.
The baby has had heart problems from the start and now needs emergency surgery.
“She’s having a difficult time breathing and she’s tired a lot,” says her mother Julie Desabrais. “She needs to have heart surgery now and she will have more when she is older.”
Desabrais says her daughter is a fighter despite her heart defect, “She definitely lives up to her name, she has already defied a lot of the odds…by seeing her you wouldn’t know that she has a heart like hers.”
After visiting Children’s Hospital in London several times, the little girl was referred to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto for the major operation.
While there is joy over the potentially life-saving surgery, it has also created more challenges for the young family.
“With COVID and the lockdown we can’t get into Ronald McDonald House and I’m not blaming them, they helped us before, “ says Riot’s father, William Snow. “We still have bills to pay for our place in London and now must pay for a hotel and food in Toronto.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe page and is hoping people can pitch in to help.
“I know everyone is dealing with COVID right now and everyone has Christmas to deal with…but the hotel alone is going to cost us more than two grand for sure,” Snow said.
For now the family just wants their daughter to get through the surgeries and live like any other little girl.
“Just the idea that the surgery is going to save her life is amazing and there’s no guarantee on how long her life will be but we want it to be the best and as normal as it can be,” said Desabrais.
