Country singer Rory Feek’s 12-year-old daughter Indiana is preparing to have major surgery.
“‘I don’t want the surgery Papa,’ Indy said through her tears a few nights ago as we finished prayers and tucked her into bed. ‘I want the miracle.’ she said as I held her and she cried,” Feek, 61, wrote via his Substack on Monday, June 22, revealing plans for Indiana, a.k.a. Indy, to undergo open heart surgery this week in Austin, Texas.
The country singer says the operation will fix a “small hole” in the vital organ.
“We’ve known for the last couple of months that this was on the horizon. This is part of why we’re here in Texas,” the singer continued. “Throughout February and March, we visited a couple of different children’s hospitals around the state and ultimately decided to do it at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin. It’s an incredible facility with a wonderful staff, and Dr. Frasier, who will be doing the surgery, is one of the very best pediatric cardiac surgeons in the world.”
Rory Feek has found love again after the death of Joey Feek. The 59-year-old country music singer and songwriter revealed that he wed his partner and daughter’s schoolteacher, Rebecca, on Sunday, July 14, eight years after the passing of his second wife and singing partner, Joey. The pair shared daughter Indiana, now 10. (Rory also […]
Rory — who shared Indy with his late wife and musical partner, Joey Feek — explained that after his youngest child was born in 2014, she was diagnosed with a ventricular septal defect (VSD) — a small hole in her heart that required constant monitoring. (Indy has Down syndrome, which is commonly linked to heart issues, according to the National Down Syndrome Society.)
“Ultimately, the hole continued to be there. It hasn’t gotten any larger, but over time, it has begun to cause a few complications,” he said.
Rory, who is also a dad to daughters Heidi, 39, and Hopie, 38, with ex-wife Tamara Gilmer, noted that “hardest part” of the process has been “helping Indy get emotionally ready for what’s coming.”
“Preparing her for something that’s going to be very hard on her,” he continued. “Hard on all of us, especially her Papa, to see her go through so much difficulty and pain. But I also know that when it’s done, it’s going to make her life better.”
Rory Feek’s daughter Hopie Feek recently found out that the country singer is not her biological father. “I’ve always felt a little bit different — and now I know why,” Hopie, 36, said in an Instagram video posted earlier this month. “I took a 23andMe test and I got the results I never knew I […]
After her surgery, Indy will spend “10 days or so” recovering in the hospital. She will then spend six to eight weeks in recovery at home.
In an update on Tuesday, June 23, Rory revealed that Indy had a pre-op appointment, where she worked through her fears about the surgery and got the chance to decorate her oxygen mask. She also completed a few necessary pre-op tests.
“In just a few hours the pre-op was all behind us and we were out the door, with Indy holding a new teddy bear they’d given her that she named ‘Hearty,’ who has his own stitches in his chest, like the ones she’ll soon have,” Rory shared. “It was a wonderful start to a much longer and harder journey that she, and we in many ways, are about to go on together.”
