Cory Wharton's 7-Month-Old Daughter Undergoing Open Heart Surgery
The Challenge star Cory Wharton's 7-month-old daughter, Maya, underwent open heart surgery on Wednesday. Wharton (who also appeared on Teen Mom OG as the father of Cheyenne Floyd's daughter Ryder) and Taylor Selfridge welcomed Maya in June. Maya was born with a heart defect and has taken several trips to the hospital in her young life.
"The day is finally here," Wharton wrote on Instagram Wednesday. "[Maya] has her open heart surgery today. All I'm asking is for everybody to keep us in your prayers and keep praying for her & the doctors that will be working on her heart."
"We have been anticipating this day for so long all the anxiety that has built up for months," Wharton continued. "I just can't wait for her heart to be fixed. Then we can move on from this chapter. Again thank you all, [and] I'll keep you all updated."
Maya needed her first open heart surgery just days after she was born, Wharton told fans in June. She was diagnosed with tricuspid atresia, a form of congenital heart disease that happens when the tricuspid valve is not developed. The valve helps the heart pump blood between the lungs and the rest of the body. Thankfully, Maya was released from the hospital just days later.
In October, Maya needed a procedure that prepared her for this week's open-heart surgery. "This is the next step, we've known about this procedure for a while now, after this one she has her big open heart surgery at the end of the month," Wharton wrote on Oct. 18. "We're taking it one day at a time one procedure at a time, but on the right track." That procedure was a "right and left heart catheterization with angiography, using plastic tubes in the heart to measure the pressure and oxygen levels," Wharton explained.
A few days later, Maya visited the emergency room. "So you guys know I like to be honest with you [and] usually you always talk about your good days, but it has been a very long day," Wharton wrote in an Instagram Story, reports Us Weekly. "We had to bring Maya back to the emergency room. She wasn't getting enough oxygen and was struggling to breathe. Watching your child struggle for air is such a helpless feeling. Never again, I pray. But now, she is stable."
Wharton, 31, and Selfridge, 28, are also parents to 2-year-old daughter Mila. In a September Instagram post, Selfridge said Maya will be "in so much better health" after her surgeries. "After this, she'll have a 3 1/2 year break," Selfridge wrote on Sept. 26. "So I want it over with, but I don't want to go through it because of my fears of the risks. She has the best cardiologists and I'm putting my faith in them to take care of my baby. It's so hard as a parent but I know she's so strong."