Hallmark Star Opens Up About Child’s Battle with Multiple Heart Surgeries

Every Hallmark star who has filmed a movie since the pandemic had to take extra precautions on set. But for Nikki DeLoach, things hit a little closer to home because her young son has had three heart surgeries in just the first three years of his life. She took extra precautions while filming her most recent movies.

DeLoach Was Wearing Her Mask at Home While Filming & Only Took It Off While Sleeping

DeLoach’s newest Hallmark movie, Cranberry Christmas, just premiered. But filming in Canada was a little more stressful for DeLoach because of her family’s health conditions. She told Hallmark for All Seasons that her three-year-old son has already had three heart surgeries in his young life, so she’s had to be extra careful.

“For both of the Hallmark movies, the second I went to set, I started wearing a mask at home,” she said. “All the time. It only came off when I slept. That’s how careful I was being. And, you know, these production companies – the ones who are doing it right in Canada – there’s no place safer.”

She said that was nervous because the numbers in the United States were so high, but production companies were extra careful. She said she was very grateful that Hallmark has been able to produce the same number of Christmas movies as in non-pandemic years.

She Had Learned Her Son Had Heart Defects When She Was Five Months Pregnant

When DeLoach was just five months pregnant, she found out that her now three-year-old son Bennett Christopher Goodell had multiple heart defects, including a small hole in his heart, a narrow aorta, arteries going into the wrong chambers of his heart, and a coronary artery that had to be moved, People reported. She said it was her family and faith that kept her going during that time. She reached out to her husband for support, because she had had serious postpartum depression after her first child’s birth.

Five days after her son was born in 2017, he had surgery and survived multiple procedures on his heart. Recovery took weeks and DeLoach said it was so hard for her. One night she cried and a nurse hugged her and told her that she works with children like this every day, and Bennett was going to be OK.

Still, it was tough transitioning when they went home. She told People: “We brought Bennett home and the first week was really tough because every time he breathed weird or felt warm or sneezed, I panicked… I think that’s perfectly normal. I want mommies to know it’s perfectly normal to have PTSD after going through something like we did.”

In an interview with Christopher Closeup, DeLoach shared that by the time he was just two years old, Bennett already had three open-heart surgeries. She said today he’s doing well, but at one point they were worried about losing health insurance and affording the surgeries. Hallmark stepped in and rescheduled DeLoach’s shooting schedule so she could still qualify for health insurance.

She said her father started exhibiting signs of dementia around the same time, and he was later diagnosed with Pick’s Disease. She told Christopher Closeup that she questioned her faith for a while and then realized: “The truth of the matter is that life is hard and bad stuff happens to all of us. Disease and illness do not discriminate. It doesn’t matter your race, your gender, or your socioeconomic level. Bad stuff happens to everyone. It is our faith that helps us to give any situation meaning…  it is our faith that helps us look at it and say, ‘How can I give this purpose? How can I lean into God to get me through, knowing that at the end of the day, whatever happens, I am still being held.”

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