A toddler born with a backwards heart has received a lifesaving transplant, which means she can finally go home with her parents – after spending 746 days in hospital.
Fable Potter was born at 36 weeks with multiple heart defects in what her mum, Mia Woods, a nursing assistant, describes as a “never-ending nightmare”.
After birth, the little girl was immediately placed in a special care unit, where she was forced to remain until a donor heart could be found.
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The news left her parents, Mia and Riven, both 24, torn apart.
But after so long of living in the unknown – with the little girl’s future touch and go at one point as she went into heart failure – her parents were overjoyed when the news came in.
A match had been found.
“It felt like a perpetually never-ending nightmare,” Mia, who is from the US but does not wish to share a more specific location, told Need To Know.
“I was 22 weeks pregnant when I found out [that my daughter had a heart condition] but I wasn’t ready to give up on her.
“I knew she could do [survive] it.
“Fable coming home was honestly the best day of my life other than the day she was born.
“Our hospital sent us to the zoo to meet the new baby elephant in celebration, so it was kind of crazy.
“Fable had never seen a car and now there were elephants!
“But I was just beyond grateful for our community and the number of people who were there to send us off.
“It was overwhelming but in a good way; I had no clue how many people cared for my baby like that.
“[But when we got the news that they had found a match], my heart was hurting because I knew where the heart had to come from.
“It crushed me to think of another mom losing their child.
“I try every day to honour her donor and his life.
“We have a picture of him in our house and we plan on telling Fable about him when she’s ready.”
Fable, who arrived four weeks early at the end of 2023 due to having a fast heart rhythm, underwent her lifesaving surgery in August 2025.
The heart transplant lasted over 10 hours due to the complicated nature of Fable’s heart being on the opposite side of her chest.
Surgeons were forced to reconstruct and transplant major blood vessels so the donor heart would fit her unique anatomy.
The prolonged bypass led to a huge setback when she developed acute kidney failure after the transplant.
Fable spent several months on dialysis, flipping between peritoneal dialysis (PD) and haemodialysis (HD).
This was made even more difficult due to her challenging vein access.
After months of recovery and struggles with her kidneys, the organs eventually made a full recovery.
During her extended time in hospital, fate made sure that Fable had her mum by her side.
As a certified nursing assistant, Mia had taken a job in the same unit as her daughter ended up in before she even knew she was pregnant.
Her role saw her check people in, stock rooms, cuddle fussy babies and do the little things that the ICU needed to keep running.
Staff went the extra mile for the Woods family.
Meanwhile, Riven worked full-time at a retail store whilst Mia’s sister moved in to help the pair cope with bills.
Mia said: “I actually still worked full-time night shifts during her entire stay.
“My employer really understood what I was going through.
“The hardest part was probably the waiting – it felt never-ending.
“My poor baby was stuck in the hospital but I was trapped there too.
“I worked, ate and slept there.
“My boyfriend always worked full time and we had my sister living with us to help us pay bills.
“My mom also moved to town and she was a huge help.
“I honestly couldn’t be here without her.”
Five months in, the situation became dire as Fable suffered an SVT episode that lasted more than 24 hours after the medication stopped working.
She needed an ablation – a procedure to treat irregular heart rhythms – but one had never been done before on a baby so young.
Mia said: “I went through a bout of anger where I was mad at the world ‘Why me, why my baby?’.
“But I worked through it and used that energy on loving my daughter.
“At the time, the youngest successful ablation was done on a 10-month-old and Fable was only five months.
“So, as this was our last resort, we spent the day loving on her and saying our goodbyes.
“But she ended up making it.”
Thankfully, the little girl is now happy at home.
Although her parents are now immensely grateful for the outcome, their daughter’s journey isn’t over just yet.
Mia said: “Fable was in the hospital for almost two years exactly, coming home less than a week shy of her second birthday.
“Due to how long she was intubated, she had no experience eating or walking, so she’s actually aged at 11 months developmentally.
“That’s our biggest hurdle right now.
“She only recently started showing interest in food but mainly still relies on her tube.
“She doesn’t talk – mostly sign language.
“She learned how to crawl about two months ago and is slowly working her way to walking right now.
“She also had brittle bones, so her left foot doesn’t sit quite right from when she broke it, so now she’s in AFOs, which hold her feet in the correct position.
“Her journey still isn’t over but it’s so worth it.
“I’ve always wanted to be a mom and Fable is the sweetest little girl I’ve ever met.
“It blows my mind every day to watch her do new things and learn about the world around her.”
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