So our story is crazy. My daughter Brionna was born with a heart condition. She was in intensive care for the first week of her life. When she was one my husband was on his way to work. He was riding his mountain bike. It was a 6 mile ride to work and about half way through it he got passed by a cyclist. On that day he decided he was going to get a road bike. He joined a local bike shop's team and soon started racing. My daughter was his biggest fan! Within a couple of years he worked his way up to a cat-1. Brionna would get mad at him if he did not win a race.
In July during one of her routine heart exams we got the knees that she would need heart surgery. On September 16th, the day after her 6th birthday she had her heart surgery. Things went well and the following Thursday she was released from the hospital. She was dancing with her pace maker in the day she left the hospital.
She was doing great over the next couple of days. She would tell everyone about her surgery and proudly show them her scar. On tuesday night she woke up really sick. My husband was going to take her back to Dupont hospital since her follow up appointment was the next day but he looked at the discharge papers which said to call 911. She got rushed to the atlanticare hospital and they told us she was going through third degree heart block. They got her stabalized and were about to airvac her to Dupont when suddenly her eyes rolled back in her head. My husband and I lost it as we watched this horrific situation about 10 feet from us. They resusitated her. She was without oxygen for 40 minutes. After her 3 hour emergency surgery her surgeon from Dupont and his team flew over to assess her. He told us that the surgeon at Atlanticare had saved her life. She finally got airvacced to Dupont and when we got there we were told that it was a waiting game now to see if any organs were damaged. The next day they noticed that she had some brain swelling. They performed a catscan and what they discovered wmas heart breaking. She had a major stroke in her brain. There was irreversible damage on both major functioning sides of her brain. If they performed emergency brain surgery that moment, there was only a 50 percent chance she would make it through and if she did, at BEST she would be in a vegetative state. All she would ever be able to do is feel pain and possibly blink. That was not an option. Brionna would not want to live like that. Who would? We opted to have a tube inserted in her brain to drain some fluids to buy her some more time so that our family and friends could say there good-byes.
On Bri's last day my husband, Ryan, had them put her handprint on his new livestrong shoes that she picked out a few weeks before. As they were pitting her handprint on his shoe, the nurse pointed out that the hands on the clock were on the 10 and 2. Brionna passed away at 11 pm on October 2nd. This is national livestrong day. My daughter came into this world as a survivor and left this earth as a fighter. She is my inspiration. Anyway, my husband and her were avid lance Armstrong fans. Does he read this forum? Does anyone know how I could get in touch with him to tell him this story!!!! My goal is to write a book one day about Brionna's life. She lived only 6 years, but she truly LIVED every single moment of those 6 years. She saved Ryan and my life's. I know she is now our guardian angel. She was a great big sister and I can't wait to tell Mikayla, 6 months old, about Bri one day. She taught me to cherish every moment of every day since you never know shen it could be your last.

Thank you for sharing your story. I hope Lance gets to see it.

thank you for sharing. i believe in angels and believe she is one of yours.

Also, for the past two years Brionna has raced in the tour de Medford. We have a great picture of her after she raced through the finish line. She is giving her daddy a high-five.