At four months old, Melody grew clingy and fussy. Her mom, Ariel Chabot, assumed it was teething—until a few weeks later, when she learned the truth was far more serious.

In June, the family came down with the flu, but Melody seemed to get worse rather than recover like Chabot, her 27-year-old mom.

She told Newsweek : "We all caught a common cold and I thought I was taking my daughter into the hospital to get a puffer for something like asthma, but it turned out to be much worse."

The infant was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy—a heart condition where the main pumping chamber of the heart (the left ventricle) becomes enlarged and stretched, making it weaker at pumping blood.

The rare condition affects approximately 0.47 girls per 100,000 and roughly 0.66 boys per 100,000, accord

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