Brianna Masson

October 21, 2015

College Essay

What is the most significant experience in your life and how has it made you the
person you are today?
I was born with a congenital heart defect called Single Left Ventricle - Tricuspid Atresia,
which means my tricuspid valve was shut and my right atrium and right ventricle did not fully
develop. When I was born I weighed seven pounds and three ounces, I had failure to thrive due
to my heart condition, eating was exhausting, breathing took up most of my energy. In utero I
was also diagnosed via a amniocentesis with Mosaic for Turners Syndrome which is a
chromosomal defect affecting 1 in 2,500 women. Each female gene is made up of two
chromosomes XX, with Mosaic Turners Syndrome 80% of genes are normal XX but 20% are
just X which is not horrible because in any cell there is always one dominant gene so the X plays
the role that it should. My first out of three open heart surgeries took place when i was six weeks
old weighing in at only only 6 pounds 7 ounces, six ounces less than my birth weight. Doctors
were hoping by delaying the surgery a few weeks I would gain weight and become stronger. The
exact opposite occurred. I lost weight and went into congestive heart failure during my first
complex cardiac surgery that lasted 9.5 hours in the operating room. Nitric Oxide had not been
FDA approved at the time of my surgery and the cardiothoracic surgeon refused to perform the
surgery unless he had access to this drug and the machine to administer it. So I ended up a Yale
Children's Hospital at the last moment because Connecticut Childrens Hospital had only one of
the machines and shared it with Hartford Hospital and the weekend before my scheduled surgery
someone had a heart attack and was using the machine. It is a good thing that Yale had 3 of them

because they needed the nitric oxide to keep my traumatized arteries open and flowing post
operative which kept me alive. My second open heart surgery I was six months old and weighed
ten pounds. I remember my last surgery even though I was only four, It had a sky painted on the
ceiling, there was a lot of needles (one every hour), I felt like I was in a long dream when i was
under except it was more of a nightmare, and i remember my chest hurting when i woke up. As i
got older my mom told me stories of how in the first surgery they tried to prepare her for my
death and that my survival rate was only fifty percent, She said there was also complications and
they couldnt close my heart so i had to lay with my chest open for two hours for the swelling to
go down. She told me how she found out, she was getting an ultrasound and the girl went very
quiet and left the room for an hour and came back with three other doctors who sat her down and
told her about her daughter and how she would need three surgeries to correct the heart defect.
This Defect has been a lifelong struggle for me and it's a never ending battle of weakness that I
can not win.