Benefit helps family of baby awaiting heart transplant

Sometimes a diva attitude is healthy.

Four-month-old Ava Snyder has a feisty temperament that makes her parents groan when they think about what she might be like as a teenager. She is fascinated by faces and will stare down anyone who comes into her hospital room.

She also has kicked her legs almost nonstop since the womb, her mother jokes.

Nicole and Jeff Snyder think their daughter's spirit and energy will help her get through one of the scariest times of their lives.

Ava, who was born on Aug. 12, was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a disease where the heart is enlarged and does not pump blood properly. She is staying at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, where she awaits a heart transplant.

Recently, her condition has started to respond to medication and doctors moved her to an inactive status on the transplant list. If she continues to improve, she could come home next week.

"I think her personality has a lot to do with it," Nicole Snyder said. "We like to call her our little Christmas miracle."

But even if she does not need the transplant, she will have to remain on medication for the rest of her life, and return to All Children's three to four times a week for up to six more months.

In the meantime, the Snyders continue their grueling schedule of working in Hillsborough County and commuting from their jobs or home in Land O' Lakes daily to see her.

They play with her, feed her, bathe her and read stories. They are the only people Ava sees who don't have to wear hospital masks, and she studies their mouths when they talk. No one other than her parents and medical staff could visit her until recently.

Now her grandparents can, but eager aunts, uncles and family friends have had to stay away for fear of infection and rely on photos and video posted on Facebook to get their Ava fix.

To help, they decided to tackle the Snyders' financial burden. They hosted a benefit Wednesday night at Beef O'Brady's in Citrus Park.

"Everyone wants to help," said fellow fifth-grade teacher Claudia Smith. "They don't know what to do."

Tickets were $15 each for a meal and a beverage, with $10 from each ticket going to Ava's Heart Benefit.

Staff members at Claywell Elementary, where Nicole Snyder teaches fifth grade, collected donations for gift baskets to raffle.

The drawing and silent auction included high-profile items, as well as themed baskets the teachers assembled and autographed merchandise from local sports teams. Autographed memorabilia came from Shakira, Green Day, the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus.

"The community really came out," said Dante Skourellos, Nicole's brother. "It's been a great outpouring."

At lunchtime Wednesday, people filed steadily into the restaurant, many wearing white "Ava's Heart" T-shirts. A computer slideshow of Ava bundled up as a newborn, Ava sitting in her baby chair and Ava cuddled with her parents played as they browsed silent auction items.

Smith said so many people wanted to help that they were still arriving Wednesday morning with raffle items.

The Snyders are well known in the school system. Ava's paternal grandmother, Connie Snyder, teaches at Bellamy Elementary and her maternal grandmother, Shirley Skourellos, is retired from Roland Park. Students at Claywell always ask how "baby Ava" is doing.

Ava is covered under her mother's health insurance, but Nicole Snyder had to reduce her schedule to part time, which meant a drop in pay. She and Jeff both head separately to St. Petersburg each day after work to see their daughter and have additional expenses of gas money for the drive and eating out, Smith said, because they don't have the chance to cook at home.

Nicole Snyder had a healthy pregnancy, and she and her husband saw no sign when Ava was born that anything was wrong. At 5 weeks old, she developed a fever and was admitted into the hospital. Initial tests showed nothing out of the ordinary, but later Ava's pediatrician detected a heart murmur he hadn't heard before. Two hours after that, she was admitted to the intensive care unit.

Though they can't wait for Ava to come home, money will continue to be tight. The Snyders will have to return to All Children's for multiple checkups a week, which means Nicole Snyder will have to stay on a part-time schedule for now.

Snyder said she was overwhelmed to see the work Smith and others put into planning the benefit and the response it was generating.

"It's amazing to know that someone cares this much for me and my family," Snyder said. "We've had a great response. You forget how great people are."

AVA'S HEART FUND

To donate to the Ava Snyder fund, send a check to the school in care of Claudia Smith, Claywell Elementary, 4500 Northdale Blvd., Tampa FL 33624. Checks should be written to Ava Snyder. The school's phone number is (813) 975-7300.