Hallmark actress Nikki DeLoach will never forget her first days of being a mom to her son Bennett.
“He had four congenital heart defects and without immediate intervention, he was not going to survive,” DeLoach, 45, exclusively shared with Us Weekly at the Children’s Heart Foundation’s Congenital Heart Walk on Sunday, May 18. “At five days old, Dr. Vaughn Starnes at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles — one of the world’s top pediatric heart surgeons — saved his life.”
Bennett’s health scare, however, wasn’t resolved with just one important surgery. At 12 months old and 18 months old, DeLoach’s “heart warrior” had additional heart procedures.
Now, he’s preparing to turn 8 years old and is able to play soccer, the piano and excel at school.
“I grew up in this industry and had my first job at, like, eight years old,” DeLoach — who also shares Hudson, 11, with husband Ryan Goodell — recalled to Us from Griffith Park in Los Angeles. “And when you grow up in this industry, we think, ‘This is it.’ It’s our everything, until you face a life and death crisis with your child. Then you realize that there is nothing that matters more than our health and our ability to not just be alive, but to thrive in our lives.”
According to the Children’s Heart Foundation, congenital heart defects are America’s most common and deadly birth defect, with nearly 40,000 babies born with CHD each year in the United States.
DeLoach has vowed to use her platform to raise awareness for more research and to remind families affected that there are plenty of reasons to hope.
“I see [my son] on a playground, and I know for most parents that’s a given, but that’s not a given for parents of children with congenital heart defects,” she said. “Get your child’s heart checked. … I hope by the time I take my last breath in this world that it will just be a part of the screening of every newborn. When they are born, they get their ears checked, their eyes checked, everything else and their hearts. It sounds like a no-brainer to me.”
Although many years have passed since DeLoach was first introduced to the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit or the CTICU, she still remembers the emotions she felt waiting for good news from health care workers.
During those critical surgeries and waiting periods, DeLoach said she relied on her faith and countless friends who showed up for months with food, smoothies, hugs and support.
“Parents are just as much heart warriors as the children,” she said. “It is such a hard thing to go through a life and death crisis with your child.”
Regardless of what health scare a child may face, DeLoach urges parents to be advocates for their youngest family members.
While the Hallmark star said she was raised in the South “to be seen and not heard,” everything changed when Bennett faced a difficult diagnosis.
“Your job is to advocate for your child throughout the entire process, to ask for what you need, to speak up whenever you don’t understand something and to protect your child at all costs,” she said. “You have to learn how to become empowered in your own body and in your own mind and in your own heart and be your voice for that child.”
Along the way, DeLoach discovered that once she did it for her child, she could do it for countless others who need to be heard.
“What you’ll realize is if you could do it for your child, you can begin doing it for your community, for your country, for whatever is right,” she said. “And we can do it with kindness and compassion.”
