Isla’s New Heart

Nothing can slow Isla down. Whether she’s running outside to swing, getting more paint on herself than on the paper or bopping around to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” the two-and-a-half-year-old has a heart for imagining what’s next.

“The energy you see right now? She never lost that,” said her mom, McKayla Strozier, who admitted she and her husband, Charles, spend most of their day chasing Isla, the youngest of their four children, at their home in Waldron.

From nine months old to right before her second birthday, Isla lived at the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) in Little Rock on a ventricular assist device, specifically a Berlin Heart^®, to keep her heart pumping after a diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy. She received a new heart on July 29, 2025.

A year after her heart transplant, Isla has built a life outside the hospital she called home for 445 days. But the memories and impact she made with her medical family are lasting, spanning over two dozen cardiologists, specialists, surgeons and nurses, creating a specialized care experience. It wasn’t just a heart institute — it was Isla’s heart institute.

“At Arkansas Children’s, we have a heart institute. What it means is we look at the patient as a whole and then align providers with them, rather than just saying, ‘You’re a cardiology patient’ or ‘You’re a patient with heart failure.’ That silo of medicine has been torn down and rebuilt. In a sense, this is Isla’s heart institute — we tailored the care for her,” said Lawrence Greiten, M.D., a pediatric congenital heart surgeon at ACH and associate professor of surgery in the department of surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock.

A New Reality

Ten days changed everything for the Strozier family.

Nine months after Isla was born Aug. 26, 2023, she began experiencing breathing issues, and an X-ray revealed an enlarged heart. In the middle of the night on June 1, 2024, the Stroziers drove 2 ½ hours to the emergency department at Arkansas Children’s Northwest in Springdale after Isla turned a purple-blue color and vomited. Isla was struggling with a viral infection. An echocardiogram revealed decreased heart function. She was flown via an Angel One helicopter to the ACH CVICU in Little Rock and admitted June 2.

Specialists diagnosed her with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, which occurs when the heart becomes enlarged and weakened for no specific reason.

“Dilated cardiomyopathy is relatively uncommon in children. If you look at all live births, you’ll see about 0.6 to maybe 1.1 out of every 100,000 is diagnosed with a cardiomyopathy, similar to dilated cardiomyopathy,” Dr. Greiten said. “The causes of that are wide-ranging. You can have idiopathic causes, meaning we just don’t know. Then there is a milieu of viral infections, genetic diseases or other inborn errors of metabolism that can lead to this as well. Isla’s case was unique.”

While it’s standard to wait at least six weeks before a viral infection is cleared before placing a child on a VAD, “Isla didn’t have the luxury of that time,” Dr. Greiten explained.

On June 12, 2024, cardiac surgeons implanted a Berlin Heart®, a VAD with a continuous pump device that is half full of the patient’s blood, and the other half is full of air. As the pneumatic tube pressurizes, it pumps blood up and down. Flexible tubing is implanted into the chest, extending several feet outside the body to allow a patient to move around as normal, while still connected to the VAD.

On June 13, Isla was placed on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) donor registry.

“We relied heavily on our faith. It was a lot of prayer, not just from us, but from our entire community, and so that was our way of coping. We knew we weren’t going to be able to do it on our own,” McKayla said.

Isla’s New Heart

On a national scale, wait times for heart transplants have increased, mandating patients stay on VADs longer to offer better support. Isla was one of three patients who were placed on a VAD at ACH in 2024.

The Stroziers’ split time each week between their home in Waldron with their three sons, and the hospital with Isla, five hours away roundtrip. Birthdays and holidays were inside the walls of ACH, which became Isla’s playground. Her days were filled with wagon rides, playing and waving to other pediatric patients.

“We weren’t afraid of her. You see the looks on different parents’ faces, and sometimes they’re going to be scared of their baby because of all the equipment. The first time I walked into the room when she was still intubated after her Berlin Heart® placement, I saw this thing pulsating on her tummy. I was about to pass out and throw up, thinking, ‘What in the world did I say yes to? I have no idea how to take care of a kid that’s had a heart transplant.’ She’s my fourth kid, and you think, ‘Oh man, I’m supposed to be a pro at this,’” Charles said. “But after a while, that’s my daughter. We did our best to be here for her. We never let it stop her or us. We were fearless — I was throwing her up in the air, doing all the normal dad stuff.”

Throughout the week, CVICU Child Life Specialist Brianna Shannon, CCLS, would help normalize Isla’s environment with plenty of toys, crafts and playtime, making sure she met developmental milestones. She provided resources, like a book on heart transplants, for Isla’s parents to take to her older brothers Rowan, Oliver and Willow, who were only able to visit Isla in the CVICU three times during her stay due to visitor restrictions. Whether a patient is in the CVICU for two days or for over a year, Shannon said she’s focused on the patient and advocates for families.

Isla was “spunky,” Shannon admits, and loved coloring, stickers and bubbles.

“It was fun to see her go from how sick she was, to then see her just hit all the milestones, even with the Berlin Heart®. I see kids with Berlins a lot, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid learn to walk with the Berlin Heart like Isla did,” Shannon said.

Despite her circumstances, Isla rarely cried. Xiomara Garcia-Casal, M.D., a pediatric heart transplant physician in the CVICU at ACH and professor of pediatrics in the division of cardiology at UAMS, was Isla’s primary cardiologist in the CVICU.

“People from all over the hospital would find a reason to come visit her because she lit up the whole unit with that smile,” Dr. Garcia-Casal said. “While her family could not always be physically with her — life does not stop — every single night they were there on the iPad, checking on their girl and every weekend they came. That is love. That kind of devotion, you feel it in the room even when they are far away. The whole team fell in love with all of them.”

When a patient receives a new heart, the CVICU team throws a party. And last July, it was Isla’s turn to celebrate.

“I was at work when Sherry Pye, CNP, called me. She’s like, ‘Well, how was the birthday party?’ because they knew that our son had a birthday party. Then she goes, ‘We’re fixing to have another party,’ and tells me that we got her call,” that Isla would receive a new heart, McKayla said. “It took a good minute for it to really register, but I immediately started crying. We’re obviously happy that it’s her turn, but it’s also so terrifying because we’re about to go through our second open-heart surgery. I knew someone else was having to say goodbye. That’s always been very heavy for me."

On July 29, 2025, Isla received her new heart, with lead surgeon Brian Reemtsen, M.D., pediatric cardiovascular surgeon, chief of cardiovascular surgery and director of the Heart Institute at Arkansas Children’s and professor of surgery at UAMS, and Dr. Greiten assisting. Experts in the Arkansas Children’s Heart Institute have performed 400 heart transplants since the program began 36 years ago. In 2025, Isla was one of four pediatric patients to receive a new heart.

Isla left ACH Aug. 21, 2025, just in time to celebrate her second birthday at home.

A Year Later Means ‘Everything’    

McKayla and Charles admitted they expected Isla to be a little cautious at a home she barely knew. But that’s just not Isla.

“While she does get shy from time to time, she’s never been phased by anything. She’s fearless. She would be outside all the time if we let her,” her mom said, with her dad adding, “She really likes playing with Play-Doh and pretty much anything her brothers are doing.”

The past year, Isla’s world got wider in the simplest ways. She’s happiest throwing rocks in the nearby pond and following her brothers around like a typical little sister. The only difference is the long scar down her chest.

“It’s been an adventure. Every day is different, and some days are still really hard, but we get to navigate those days as a family. She loves music. She dances and sings along. It’s so sweet and sometimes so funny. My favorite thing she does is she says ‘Isla’ and then answers herself with a loud, ‘What?!’” McKayla said. “The most special memory for us is being able to take her to church.”

Today, Isla has regular cardiology visits at Arkansas Children’s and will be on immunosuppression medications for life to make sure her body never rejects her heart. Dr. Garcia-Casal said it means “everything” to see Isla growing up.

“She is wild now, full of fire, into everything — exactly how a little girl should be. When she comes back to ACH, I drop what I am doing to go see her. One time, I ran to the parking lot just to catch them. I was not going to miss my ‘Islita,’” Dr. Garcia-Casal said. “These check-ins, we treasure them. To see her thriving with her new heart, growing into the young lady she is going to become — this is why I do this work. There is no better gift.”

Reflecting on Isla’s journey, her dad said it’s hard to put into words the feeling of “no matter where you go, half of your family is always gone.” But they trusted her care team.

“It’s wonderful seeing how smart they are and how well they can take care of your kid,” Charles said. “To see the passion is also another thing — that makes it a lot easier to leave the hospital.”

McKayla said families can’t imagine what it’s like to be in the CVICU until it happens. But looking back, Isla gained more than a new heart at Arkansas Children’s.

“What I would tell other families in similar situations is that it’s OK not to be OK. It’s OK to fall apart and to ask for help,” McKayla said. “Isla’s care team became family. The people up there at the CVICU are still rooting for her.”

* This article was written by the Arkansas Children’s content team and medically reviewed by Lawrence Greiten, M.D.