Meet Rose

When Alyson was pregnant with her first child, she and her husband, Justin, didn’t expect to uncover any issues at her 20-week ultrasound. But the scan showed a heart condition called truncus arteriosus, where a baby has only one blood vessel leaving the heart instead of both the aorta and the pulmonary artery.   

 “It was a very emotional, up-and-down pregnancy, but there was something about Rose,” Alyson says. “She was a fighter from the beginning—we knew that she would be OK.” 

Rose was transferred from her birth hospital to Phoenix Children’s two weeks after her birth in August 2024, first to the NICU and then to the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU). When she was just 2 months old, she had open heart surgery to repair her blood vessels.   

Rose stayed in the CVICU for a total of five and a half months. “She spent every holiday in the hospital her first year, except for Easter,” Alyson says. 

Music therapy, a donor-funded program, turned out to be a key part of Rose’s experience at Phoenix Children’s. Rose’s music therapist found ways that songs could help calm her, especially when Rose’s treatments meant she couldn’t have her pacifier. “Rose built a strong relationship with her music therapist. She played a huge part in finding other routes for her being calm besides medication,” Alyson says.  

 When Rose went home from the hospital, she brought with her some musical toys, recordings of her heartbeat and of her therapist’s voice—and a love of music. “She loves singing. She can’t talk, and she’s such a little extrovert, so she loves facial interaction and when you’re dramatic about singing,” Alyson says. “And singing is our default method to calm her down. ‘Wheels on the Bus’ is our go-to.”

Once Rose went home, her struggles weren’t over. She needed oxygen delivered through a nasal cannula and a feeding tube to help her get the nutrients she needed. In June 2025, doctors created a tracheostomy to bypass her narrow airway so she could breathe directly into her lungs. 

 Rose has been home since late October 2025. “She loves snuggles, singing, stroller walks, books and Ms. Rachel. She’s thriving at this point. It’s awesome to see her doing so well,” Alyson says. “She blows my mind every day with how smart she is and how cute she is and how happy she is.”  

 Rose’s home care includes a nursing team and physical therapy to help her build her strength, since she has delays from being in bed most of her life. And she regularly has follow-up visits at Phoenix Children’s.   

 “When she has her appointments, the nurses and doctors are excited to see how big she is,” Alyson says. “She loves the hospital. It’s like her second home.”