MINNEAPOLIS — On Iris' short time on earth, she's already faced her fair share of trials and hospital visits.
But thanks to a medical breakthrough, she's now making history and hoping to put those days behind her.
Iris was born with Down syndrome and she is surrounded by love, family and toys.
"She’s been fun to cuddle with and play with," said her father, Jason Price.
"This is her all the time," said Patricia Price, her mother, as her baby girl giggled picking up a toy. "All the time, she's smiling."
Lately, they've been holding her a little closer. Iris was born with a congenital heart disease that leaves holes in her heart. Jason and Patricia Price always knew she needed to have surgery, but didn't know her heart procedure would need to happen within her first year.
"The anticipation and the unknown is a lot," said Patricia.
There weren't a lot of options to close a heart as tiny as Iris.' If left untreated, there can be breathing, growth and feeding issues. So her parents decided to try something new.
Dr. Varun Aggarwal is a pediatric cardiologist at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital.
"The number of patients getting these devices is less compared to if you make a device one for adult disease," said Aggarwal. "So it's not as lucrative to do all the research and development to make new devices for small patients. But we always appreciate companies collaborating for for children."
He says Iris is the first in the country to have an Occlutech ASD Occluder installed in her heart .It's about half the size of a pencil eraser that fills the space.
"Instead of needing an open heart surgery and putting on the heart lung bypass machine, it can be a minimally invasive solution for many children nowadays." said Aggarwal.
Patricia and Jason admit it was nerve-racking to be first, but Iris' medical team says her heart should function normally now or the rest of her life.
This past month she even celebrated her first birthday, fitting for the first person to have this tiny device in her heart.
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