Teen Mom OG star Cory Wharton asks for prayers from fans as he reveals his seven-month-old daughter Maya is undergoing open-heart surgery
Teen Mom OG star Cory Wharton announced Wednesday that his youngest daughter is undergoing open-heart surgery.
The 31-year-old reality star shared a cute photo of himself holding his seven-month-old daughter Maya in what appears to be a hospital setting while masked.
This appears to be the second scheduled open-heart surgery for the little girl, who previously had surgery to correct her tricuspid atresia just days after she was born.
The congenital heart defect occurs when the heart’s tricuspid valve is underdeveloped, which prevents deoxygenated blood from properly pumping to the lungs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hoping for the best: Teen Mom OG star Cory Wharton, 31, asked for prayers on Wednesday as he revealed his seven-month-old daughter Maya would have open-heart surgery that day
People with this condition can easily become tired or out of breath, and multiple surgeries are required to treat the problem.
“The day is finally here @mayagrace.wharton has her open heart surgery today ❤️,” Cory began his caption. “All I ask is that everyone keep us in your prayers and keep praying for her and the doctors who will be working on her heart ❤️.
“We have been waiting for this day for so long, all the fear that has been building for months. I can’t wait for her heart to get fixed,” he continued. “Then we can continue with this chapter. Thanks again everyone and I will keep you all updated.’
He later posted a black screen on his Instagram Stories with a single praying hands emoji, and a subsequent flashback clip showed him on a monitor holding his daughter and kissing her.
Family: Cory and his girlfriend Taylor Selfridge welcomed Maya on June 1, but just 10 days later she had to undergo the first of several surgeries to correct her tricuspid atresia
Nervous: “We’ve been waiting for this day for so long, all the anxiety that’s been building for months. Can’t wait for her heart to get fixed,” Cory wrote on Instagram
“Prayers for Maya today as she has her open heart surgery,” he wrote.
A subsequent video showed Cory and Maya in the hospital before their surgery, and he wrote that it was taken at 6:41 a.m
“It’s time all those months we’ve been waiting for today it’s just a surreal feeling because you want her to be ok in the long run,” he wrote. “But you don’t want her to be in pain, that’s my biggest concern. Any parent knows that seeing your child suffering and not being able to help is the worst feeling in the world.”
Maya originally had open-heart surgery just 10 days after she was born on June 1, but it’s common for children who have tricuspid atresia to have a second surgery about four to six months later.
Horrifying situation: “Any parent who knows their child is in pain and can’t help them is the worst feeling in the world,” he wrote just before Maya’s surgery
Cory shared in a previous post that her doctors said she would have a third surgery when she was around three to four years old.
The Challenge star and girlfriend Taylor Selfridge are also parents to a daughter of two, named Mila Mae, and he also shares daughter Ryder, five, with his ex-girlfriend Cheyenne Floyd, who appeared on Teen Mom OG with him.
Cory and Taylor fell in love after appearing on the first season of MTV’s Ex On The Beach in 2018, and they later got their own Teen Mom OG spinoff from the network, but it was canceled in June 2020 after Taylor’s old racist tweets had reappeared.
Growing family: The Challenge star and girlfriend Taylor Selfridge are also parents to a two-year-old daughter named Mila Mae, and he also shares daughter Ryder, five, with his ex-girlfriend Cheyenne Floyd