Metro daycare holding lemonade stand for classmate waiting for heart transplant

WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa — From the first hour to the most recent, life has been Ali’s opponent.

“She was born with a congenital heart block,” says mom, Isabella Hageman, “so she had a pacemaker.”

She battled months in the womb, then weeks in the NICU … but somehow prevailed.

“I think one of the doctors said ‘she’s the luckiest unlucky girl I’ve ever met,’” says Ali’s grandfather, Al Hageman.

She made it work — growing stronger; eventually joining the other kids.

“There were some things that we couldn’t do with her like I couldn’t wear my Apple watch,” says daycare instructor, Julia Beveridge, of Klassic Kids, Inc in Windsor Heights, “we couldn’t have magnets around her but other than that she could do what every other kid did.”

And she did — until last March when one day she just wasn’t right.

“She wasn’t eating, sleeping, playing, or being herself,” Isabella says, “and I know something was wrong.”

Her heart was failing — down to 12% capacity. She was flown to the University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital where once again, the tiny girl was lost in a tangle of machines. But once again … she emerged.

“She’s really resilient,” Al Hageman says. “She really is.”

Since then the Hagemans have had to make weekly trips to visit their 2-year-old grandbaby and their 22-year-old daughter in the hospital, where they’re stuck, waiting for a heart transplant.

“We’re always prepared to take off and go,” he says, “because you never know when you’re gonna get that phone call — it could be in the middle of the night.”

When that call comes, Ali’s mom’s heart will fight a battle of its own — between relief and sorrow. After all, a transplant can come only one way.

“It’s really hard to think about the fact that someone has to lose their baby for me to keep mine,” she says.

“You know somebody else is going through what we thought we were going to go through,” Al Hageman adds. “And to know that this is the only way that this is gonna happen, it makes it difficult.”

To reach that day, spirits need to stay high. And stepping in to help this week will be Ali’s friends from daycare. They’ll close out the week with a lemonade stand out front. Profits will be sent to Isabella, who’s been living at the Ronald McDonald House in Madison.

The stand will be open Friday from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in front of the Klassic Kids, Inc. daycare on 73rd Street in Windsor Heights.

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