Rory Feek reveals daughter, 12, had another terrifying health crisis

Country star Rory Feek revealed his 12-year-old daughter Indiana had to be airlifted to receive medical attention for a frightening health crisis last week.

Indiana, who has Down syndrome, underwent an operation in June for a hole in her heart she was born with called a ventricular septal defect VSD).

Feek, 61, then announced that the open-heart surgery had been successful and that Indiana was expected to lead ‘a full, long life.’

However in the small hours of last Thursday, Indiana began suffering fits of vomiting and then pᴀssed out, to the terror of her father and her stepmother Rebecca.

The singer recalled how he and his wife held Indiana, ‘literally crying, begging for help,’ writing: ‘I can hardly think it, let alone write it… but we thought we had lost her.’

After Indiana was rushed to one hospital by ambulance and then to another by helicopter, the doctors were able to save her, Feek wrote on Substack.

The Daily Mail has contacted Feek’s representative for comment. 

Country star Rory Feek revealed his daughter Indiana had to be airlifted to receive medical attention after a frightening health crisis last week; Feek and Indiana pictured 2019 

His post included harrowing pictures of his little girl being wheeled on a gurney across a hospital rooftop in Waco and then whisked into a life-flight chopper to Austin

The first medical facility was in Waco, Texas, where the family lives, but the ER doctor quickly determined that Indiana required treatment at another hospital in Austin.

‘Within the hour, the flight crew was in our room getting her ready, and we were headed to the roof of the building,’ wrote Feek.

Rory Feek says his daughter, Indiana, 12, is recovering and ‘should live a full long life’ after open-heart surgery

His post included harrowing pictures of his little girl being wheeled on a gurney across the hospital rooftop and then whisked into a life-flight helicopter.

Inasmuch as there was only room for one family member to accompany her, Rebecca swallowed her fear of flying and clambered aboard the aircraft, while Feek rushed to Austin in his truck to meet his family at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

The medical staff there said that ‘the area around her heart had filled up with fluid and it was constricting her heart’s ability to beat properly and they were going to have to take her back into surgery to drain the fluid,’ Feek wrote.

He was told that nothing he or Rebecca did could have prevented the crisis, which was merely ‘something that sometimes happens’ from post-op inflammation.

Indiana was subjected to another surgery wherein a ‘huge amount’ of fluid – 610 cubic centimeters – had to be drained from her heart, which had swelled to twice its healthy size by the time she was hospitalized.

Luckily, her ‘heart rate immediately went back to normal’ when the drain was installed, she was awake and eating that evening, and by the following morning she had regained color and returned to ‘pretty much her old self.’

Feek noted: ‘The doctors say that Indy is doing great and should make a full recovery, and hopefully have no further problems like this in the future’

Feek, 61, announced last month that Indiana’s open-heart surgery had been successful and that Indiana was expected to lead ‘a full, long life,’ in a post on his Substack

He welcomed Indiana with his late wife Joey Feek, who died in 2016 at the age of 40 after a nearly two-year battle with cancer that began in her cervix and metastasized 

Feek noted: ‘The doctors say that Indy is doing great and should make a full recovery, and hopefully have no further problems like this in the future.’

Last month, when he went public with Indiana’s open-heart surgery, he explained that they had known for months she would require the procedure because of complications caused by her congenital heart condition.

He welcomed Indiana with his late wife Joey Feek, who died in 2016 at the age of 40 after a nearly two-year battle with cancer that began in her cervix and metastasized.

The Feeks rose to fame together as the bluegrᴀss duo Joey + Rory, releasing such singles as Cheater, Cheater and To Say Goodbye.

Feek has also enjoyed a successful solo career as a songwriter, with such hits to his name as Blake Shelton’s Some Beach and Clay Walker’s The Chain of Love. 

For the past two years he has been locked in a feud over Indiana with his older daughters Heidi, 39, and Hopie, 38, whom he had with his ex-wife Tara Gilmer.

After Feek wrote at length online about Indiana’s open-heart surgery, Heidi fired up her Insta Stories to denounce what she characterized as her father’s ‘ongoing exploitation of my little sister on his monetized Substack account.’