Jordan Autry was 4 years and 11 months old \u2014 and 11 weeks out from an open heart surgery that his doctors had declared a success \u2014 when he died. His death was fast, a decline that took him from playing happily to undergoing chest compressions in the span of a few hours. It left his family, especially his mother, reeling.<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n
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An autopsy found that Jordan died from bioprosthetic pulmonary valve endocarditis \u2014 an infection at the site of the new valve \u2014 and complications of congenital heart disease. <\/p>\n
Endocarditis usually comes with clear signs and symptoms, allowing time for patients to seek medical care. In Jordan\u2019s case, his family says, there were no noticeable symptoms.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Children\u2019s Health, where Jordan received medical care, pointed to patient privacy laws and declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n
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Lion King-themed items still adorn Jordan Autry\u2019s bedroom as his mother Lindsay Wessinger has kept most of it tact since his death in Wylie, Texas, February 12, 2026. Wessinger\u2019s four year-old son had two open heart surgeries. He suffered from complex heart conditions and died a couple weeks after a second surgery. He contracted endocarditis, a heart infection.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
Dr. Douglas Overbey, a pediatric heart surgeon and assistant professor at Duke University, said it\u2019s rare for a patient to have endocarditis without obvious symptoms. But it happens.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear if there was anything that could\u2019ve been done differently to catch Jordan\u2019s infection before it killed him. Overbey said it\u2019s hard to say because there are so many variables with the infection itself and with the timing of the medical appointments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis particular instance of endocarditis that did not have \u2026 overt signs or symptoms that anyone picked up is very rare,\u201d Overbey said. \u201cThat makes it difficult to screen for this.\u201d<\/p>\n
But after living through a nightmare, Wessinger hopes that, at the least, Jordan\u2019s story can push other parents to be more assertive and advocate for their children, particularly after surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we go through, I don\u2019t wish on my worst enemy,\u201d she said. \u201cJordan\u2019s got to save somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
The day it happened<\/p>\n
Jordan was born with a congenital heart defect. Wessinger said he underwent his first open heart surgery at 6 days old.<\/p>\n
He had other heart procedures over his first few years of life, too, but the February 2024 open heart surgery was supposed to be the last procedure for a while.<\/p>\n
The medical providers at Children\u2019s Health, according to Wessinger\u2019s recollection and Jordan\u2019s medical records, said that surgery was a success.<\/p>\n
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Jordan Autry was a month shy of 5 years old when he suddenly died of a heart infection, a few months after a successful open heart surgery.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Lindsay Wessinger<\/p>\n
\u201cThe surgery went well with no complications,\u201d a medical provider wrote in a note from a follow-up appointment in March 2024, about one month after the surgery. \u201cSince discharge he has been doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
In April 2024, about 11 weeks out from his surgery, the family was having a normal evening. <\/p>\n
Jordan played on the trampoline in the backyard of the family\u2019s house in Wylie. He came in for dinner, ate all of his Kraft mac and cheese. After eating, he turned on The Lion King, his favorite movie, and rewound to listen to the song sequences over and over.<\/p>\n
One minute, he was dancing with his favorite stuffed animal, a monkey, in front of the TV. Then, suddenly, he was crying. Then, he was throwing up. Soon after, he was moving in and out of consciousness while his older sister, Emma Autry, screamed.<\/p>\n
This next part is what replays in Wessinger\u2019s mind on a loop.<\/p>\n
Wessinger, with no shoes on, getting into the ambulance with her son. The ambulance doors closing, with Wessinger inside and her daughter standing outside on the sidewalk. Jordan, on the gurney, seizing and rolling onto his side.<\/p>\n
Emma, who was 12 at the time, was driven to the hospital by her uncle. When she ran through the emergency room doors, she saw her mom, on her knees on the floor, screaming.<\/p>\n
Jordan was declared dead that evening.<\/p>\n
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Lindsay Wessinger, Jordan Autry’s mother, looks around her son’s room. \u201cI can\u2019t get rid of anything he\u2019s touched,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
\u2018This house feels empty\u2019<\/p>\n
Wessinger is caught in a loop.<\/p>\n
Closing in on two years since the day of Jordan\u2019s death, the freeze-frame memories replay in her mind constantly, she said. When she talks about her son, she cries and cries.<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath of Jordan\u2019s death, Wessinger said, her mind went to a dark place. She drank more than usual. She stopped believing in God and felt angry at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cJordan was my world,\u201d Wessinger said, \u201cand he took my world away that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan\u2019s death has hit the whole family hard. When they think about him, his personality and his life, they think of laughter. Jordan laughed at everything, Wessinger said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalf of his life was in the hospital,\u201d she said, \u201cand despite all that he still was the happiest kid in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a big adjustment, not hearing that laughter in the house, not having Jordan\u2019s TV playing on loud volume.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quiet,\u201d Emma said. \u201cThis house feels empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Emma Autry, 14, flips through her brother\u2019s scrapbook of artwork in his Lion King-themed bedroom at she and her mother Lindsay Wessinger\u2019s Wylie, Texas home, February 12, 2026. Emma said she only goes into the bedroom a few times throughout the year.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
Emma, now 14, said she spent the summer after Jordan\u2019s death working on healing.<\/p>\n
She said she took on a father role to her younger brother and that she saw him, in some ways, like her son, too. Emma is in ninth grade now but between caring for her younger brother and then grappling with his death, she seems in some ways older.<\/p>\n
When Emma talks about her brother\u2019s death, each individual piece of the tragedy, she talks in a level tone. Outwardly, at least, she is calm. She remembers seeing her brother\u2019s body in the hospital, for instance, a viewing that Wessinger said she did not approve beforehand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was traumatizing,\u201d Emma said, \u201cbut I handled it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the past two years, Wessinger has pulled herself up from the deepest dark place, helped in part by talking with other parents who have lost children. Slowly, she\u2019s trying to relearn how to look forward to things. Wessinger\u2019s father, Gary Wessinger, said it seems that now she doesn\u2019t think about Jordan\u2019s death 24 hours per day; perhaps just 23.5 hours per day.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just trying to grieve in a way that will make him proud,\u201d Wessinger said.<\/p>\n
The family has found comfort in small signs that they see in their daily lives. The numbers 13 and 23 \u2014 the day Jordan was born and the day he died \u2014 are their lucky numbers, their messages from Jordan.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe reassures us every day that he\u2019s OK,\u201d Emma said.<\/p>\n
Searching for meaning<\/p>\n
Overbey, the surgeon at Duke, said it\u2019s difficult to know if anything could\u2019ve been done to catch Jordan\u2019s heart infection before it became deadly.<\/p>\n
Although it\u2019s not clear exactly what happened in Jordan\u2019s case, Overbey said there are generally a few different ways that endocarditis can take hold. <\/p>\n
For infections manifesting very shortly \u2014 typically within two months \u2014 after open heart surgery, it\u2019s possible the infection started from a contaminated surgery site or from bacteria on a bioprosthetic valve itself. Or, a patient may have picked up an infection in the hospital after the surgery, such as through a contaminated IV.<\/p>\n
Other times, Overbey said, open heart surgery patients may develop endocarditis later, sometimes years after surgery, through an outside infection that travels to the heart.<\/p>\n
He said there are two primary screening methods for endocarditis: echocardiogram or checking the bloodstream for infection.<\/p>\n
For a case where endocarditis is not caught, there are scenarios where providers should\u2019ve caught early signs at a follow-up appointment. There are also scenarios, such as if the infection hadn\u2019t caught hold deeply enough at the time of the appointment, where any provider might\u2019ve missed it.<\/p>\n
Jordan\u2019s case was anything but textbook. Not even an expert can say if anything could\u2019ve been done differently.<\/p>\n
Wessinger searches, still, for possible fixes.<\/p>\n
Should blood draws be done more frequently, perhaps, after such a major surgery? What if another scan could\u2019ve caught it?<\/p>\n
Wessinger hopes Jordan\u2019s story can encourage other parents to push for the medical care they believe their children need, particularly after major procedures. That\u2019s extra important for children who can\u2019t communicate well, either because they\u2019re young or because, like Jordan, they\u2019re speech-delayed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes,\u201d Wessinger said, \u201cwe have to be the voices for our children.\u201d <\/p>\n
Overbey said the best thing parents can do is to attend all of their follow-up appointments, to listen to their doctor\u2019s advice and to notify the medical team immediately if they notice anything unusual in their child.<\/p>\n
Common endocarditis symptoms include fever, lethargy, fast heart rate or pulmonary symptoms such as a cough or shortness of breath. Post-surgery, it can be difficult to tell if those symptoms are indicative of a complication or if a child\u2019s body is just coping with the aftermath of a massive procedure.<\/p>\n
\u201cSubtle things like, \u2018Oh, maybe they\u2019re not eating as much as they were before,\u2019 \u2018Maybe they\u2019re a little bit more tired,\u2019 \u2018Maybe they\u2019re not quite as active.\u2019 Those all can be signs of a problem, but they can also be normal after heart surgery,\u201d Overbey said.<\/p>\n
Overbey was cautious, though, about not scaring parents. There is only so much that can be protected against. A tragedy is not always someone\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n
But if Jordan\u2019s story can encourage just one family to be more assertive about their child\u2019s medical care, it would be a relief for Wessinger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my Jordan,\u201d Wessinger said. \u201cThis is him, and he\u2019s worth enough to at least make some kind of impact in the short four years of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you didn\u2019t know what happened to Jordan, you might think he still lives in this house. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,396,61,60,2361,9904],"class_list":["post-354505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-public-health","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}