Nine days after Aria’s first birthday, she went into full cardiac arrest and was resuscitated by her mother, Tara. She was transported to a hospital in Duluth by ambulance where an x-ray revealed that she had an enlarged heart. Aria was soon helicoptered to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis and she was diagnosed with myocarditis – a viral infection of the heart.
She went into cardiac arrest again and was helicoptered to the Mayo, Clinic in Rochester where she spent 101 days on life support awaiting a heart transplant. During that time, Aria suffered multiple strokes, but on September 13, 2015, she received a new heart.