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Singer/songwriter Scott Cook to perform Sept. 12 at UU Church

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Area’s future recognized at Young Professionals Awards

<p>The little girl is less than four weeks old, but already she&#8217;s a veteran of open heart surgery.</p><p>And, as her &#8220;Noni&#8221; Jayanne Czerniakowski, of Kingston, will tell you, Ayonna is also showing signs of her personality.</p><p>&#8220;Even when she was born, she had these big eyes looking around, real alert,&#8221; Czerniakowski said. &#8220;She&#8217;s definitely a spitfire &#8230; She angers quickly. Zero to 60, real fast.&#8221;</p><p>Her family hopes that fighting spirit will serve Ayonna well as their little &#8220;heart warrior&#8221; &#8212; or &#8220;peanut,&#8221; as they sometimes call her &#8212; recovers from her first cardiac surgery, which took place five days after she was born via Cesarean section at Children&#8217;s Hospital of Philadelphia. She&#8217;ll also need a subsequent operation when she is between 3 and 6 months old and another when she is between 2 and 4 years old.</p><p>The baby arrived Aug. 16, weighing 5 lbs., 3 ounces, and with the medical team knowing she had HLHS, or Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, which means the left side of her heart had not developed properly and couldn&#8217;t pump blood to the body.</p><p>&#8220;The entire left side of her heart did not form,&#8221; Czerniakowski said. &#8220;They found out at 20 weeks (into the pregnancy.) With improvements in sonograms, they could detect it. There wasn&#8217;t anything they could do about it in utero, but they could make plans.&#8221;</p><p>Those plans included the first of three surgeries, the Norwood procedure, in which doctors built a new aorta for Ayonna and implanted a shunt to carry blood to her lungs.</p><p>Future surgeries include the Glenn Procedure, during which the vein that brings oxygen-poor blood from the upper half of the body is connected to the pulmonary artery and the Fontan procedure, when the vein that brings oxygen-poor blood from the lower half of the body is connected to the pulmonary artery.</p><p>While her daughter-in-law, Emily, is staying at a Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia to be close to Ayonna, and her son Dominic is traveling down to see his Ayonna several times a week, Czerniakowski has been busy organizing a benefit to help the young family with expenses.</p><p>Planned for 1 p.m. Sept. 15 at Rodano&#8217;s Pizza and Restaurant on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre, the Healing a Heart for Ayonna event includes all-you-can-eat pizza, stromboli, domestic draft beer, soda, tea and coffee. A bake sale and raffle baskets will be part of the event, with one of the raffle prizes being two tickets to the NFL Giants versus Eagles came at Giants stadium on Dec. 29. </p><p>Tickets to the benefit are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Advance tickets can be purchased at Franco&#8217;s Pizzeria Restaurant, 198 South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre and at Sakari&#8217;s Salon, 900 Rutter Ave., Forty Fort. For more information, see the Healing a Heart for Ayonna Benefit page on Facebook.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Dominic Czerniakowski visits his baby daughter, Ayonna, a patient at Children&#8217;s Hospital of Philadelphia, who was born with a congenital heart condition called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_ayonna.with_.daddy_-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Dominic Czerniakowski visits his baby daughter, Ayonna, a patient at Children&#8217;s Hospital of Philadelphia, who was born with a congenital heart condition called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. </caption0><photoCredit0>Healing A Heart for Ayonna Facebook page </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_ayonna.with_.mommy_-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Emily Domanski cuddles her daughter, Ayonna, whom the family considers their little &#8216;heart warrior.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_ayonna.with_.mommy_-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Emily Domanski cuddles her daughter, Ayonna, whom the family considers their little &#8216;heart warrior.&#8217; </caption1><photoCredit1>Healing A Heart for Ayonna Facebook page </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_ayonna.with_.noni_-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Loving &#8216;noni,&#8217; or grandmother, Jayanne Czerniakowski has arranged a benefit called Healing a Heart for Ayonna, set for 1 p.m. Sept. 15 at Rodano Pizza and Restaurant on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_ayonna.with_.noni_-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Loving &#8216;noni,&#8217; or grandmother, Jayanne Czerniakowski has arranged a benefit called Healing a Heart for Ayonna, set for 1 p.m. Sept. 15 at Rodano Pizza and Restaurant on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre. </caption2><photoCredit2>Healing A Heart for Ayonna Facebook page </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_ayonna.baby_-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Ayonna looks like she&#8217;s smiling in her sleep in this photo from the Healing a Heart for Ayonna Facebook page. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_ayonna.baby_-1.jpg</photo3><caption3>Ayonna looks like she&#8217;s smiling in her sleep in this photo from the Healing a Heart for Ayonna Facebook page. </caption3><photoCredit3>Healing A Heart for Ayonna Facebook page </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_gifts.for_.benefit-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Gifts are piling up for the Healing a Heart for Ayonna Benefit, set for 1 p.m. Sept. 15 at Rodano&#8217;s Pizza and Restaurant, Public Square, Wilkes-Barre. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/web1_gifts.for_.benefit-1.jpg</photo4><caption4>Gifts are piling up for the Healing a Heart for Ayonna Benefit, set for 1 p.m. Sept. 15 at Rodano&#8217;s Pizza and Restaurant, Public Square, Wilkes-Barre. </caption4><photoCredit4>Healing A Heart for Ayonna Facebook page </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>&#8216;Healing a Heart for Ayonna&#8217; benefit set for Sept. 15</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Tiny ‘heart warrior’ has first of three surgeries