T.J. Oshie, the U.S. hockey star of the Sochi Olympics, has been back playing with the St. Louis Blues while also staying focused on his baby girl, Lyla, who was born March 17 with the birth defect gastroschisis, which required surgery.
“When she was born her bowel was outside of her stomach,” Oshie said on “TODAY” on Friday. “Which means her stomach closed without her bowel getting inside of her.”
Oshie became an instant star after his shootout heroics to lift the U.S. over Russia in a group-play game in Sochi. The U.S. wound up finishing fourth, and Oshie returned to the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, who have the best record in the Western Conference.
His fiancee, Lauren Cosgrove, gave birth three weeks after the Olympics.
“It’s surreal,” Oshie, who missed one game for her birth, said on “TODAY.” “It was a pretty cool way to win there in Russia. Then get over here and the team here in St. Louis is doing great. Lyla Grace shows up. She trumps everything.”
But mom and dad had to wait days before they could even hold Lyla due to the birth defect.
“In the old days, this was often times fatal,” Dr. Daniel DeUgarte, associate professor of pediatric surgery at Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, told “TODAY.” “Nowadays, there is a 90 percent survival.”
Lyla is eating normally now, and Oshie and Cosgrove are expected to be able to take her home early next week, sooner than expected.
