A helping of pancakes can help mend Emma’s heart

At just over 3 months old, Emma Large is way too young to try pancakes. Her family, though, hopes for a hungry crowd when their church hosts a fundraising Norwegian pancake breakfast.

Saturday’s event is scheduled for 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Lake Stevens. Proceeds will help Darra and Tom Large with medical expenses. Their daughter, Emma, was born with a major hole in her heart and other health problems.

Everything seemed fine when Darra Large gave birth Feb. 13 at Providence Pavilion for Women &Children in Everett. Emma’s brothers, 14-year-old Daniel and Thommas, 12, were born early, but she was full term. But at her one-month checkup, the pediatrician detected a heart murmur.

Darra Large is a nurse. She’s on leave from her job at Marysville Care Center, a nursing home. Her husband works in construction.

She has heard Emma’s heartbeat through a stethoscope. In a normal heart, the sound is “lub-dub,” but with Emma’s “there isn’t a dub,” Large said. “This one is a lub-whoosh.”

The couple soon learned that Emma needs open-heart surgery.

The baby, still so small she wears clothes for newborns, is a patient of Dr. Joshua Weldin, a cardiologist at Seattle Children’s Heart Center. Emma will likely undergo surgery in four to six weeks, her mother said.

A human heart has four chambers. In Emma’s heart, Large explained, there’s a big hole in the septum, or muscle, that separates the two lower chambers, the right and left ventricles. Through research, Large has learned that a bovine flap is often used to repair such a condition.

The situation is complicated by other problems. Large said Emma also has pulmonary stenosis, which doesn’t allow the proper flow of oxygenated blood.

On top of all that, Emma has cranial stenosis. Normally, the bones in an infant’s skull are held together by seams called sutures to allow for brain growth. “Her two frontal bones fused in utero,” Large said. Her daughter is expected to need another surgery after turning a year old to reshape the front of her skull.

Large has employee health insurance through the end of this year, as long as she continues to pay premiums. Because they don’t want Emma in day care, she isn’t able to work.

As they take care of their fragile daughter and their boys’ day-to-day needs, they have a nagging worry: “It’s a huge thing,” Large said. “How in the heck are we going to pay for all this?”

The family has been on a prayer list in the church newsletter. “They didn’t ask for the benefit. Other people in the church asked the pancake breakfast team to do this,” said Helen Hendrickson, a longtime member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church.

The breakfasts are a regular treat at the church, which serves the rich Norwegian pancakes the third Saturday of each month, September through May. As many as 300 people come to the breakfasts, which cost $6 per person. Many aren’t church members.

For this fundraiser, the pancake team received a $250 grant from Thrivent Financial, a faith-based organization offering insurance and investment options. That will help buy food for Saturday’s breakfast. Hendrickson said the $6 from each diner will be donated to the family.

The breakfast team of about 25 volunteers includes four people cooking, one rolling the thin pancakes, and another whipping up buttery batter throughout the morning.

Large said her family hasn’t wanted to seek donations online. They were approached by someone at church about being helped by a breakfast. “She said, ‘You know what? You are part of our family. Just take the help you’re given,’” Large said.

At home, Large keeps a close watch on Emma, whose condition can cause her to turn blue. “Her lungs can get flooded with oxygen in the blood, and the body doesn’t get the oxygen it needs,” she said. She has learned what to do — put Emma’s legs to her chest and turn her on her side.

Large said the family has notified the fire department of Emma’s condition.

“I don’t think my boys really understand. They just see a baby, which is fine,” she said. “I know from being a mom that freaking out doesn’t do anyone any good.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Pancake breakfast

Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Lake Stevens plans a Norwegian Pancake Breakfast Benefit for Baby Emma from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday. Proceeds will benefit the family of Emma Large, who was born with a hole in her heart. The church is at 2111 117th Ave. NE, Lake Stevens.