Students donate for girl who needs heart surgery

YOUNGSTOWN — Discovery at Kirkmere’s students and staff danced the afternoon away today at the Have a Heart dance to raise money for math teacher Corissa Freeman’s 15-month-old daughter.

Lyla Freeman was born with a congenital heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot. She will have her second open-heart surgery and sixth surgery overall March 2 at Akron Children’s Hospital.

To replace the school’s annual Valentine’s Day dance, students and staff went to building principal Mesha Scott with the idea to do something big for Corissa Freeman’s family to ease the financial burden of Lyla’s surgery.

In next month’s operation, doctors will stop Lyla’s heart and put her on bypass before repairing two holes and her tiny pulmonary arteries. The surgery is expected to last eight hours.

For the complete story, read Friday's Vindicator and Vindy.com