Travis and Melissa Creer's third child, Arianna, was born three months ago and everything was going perfectly.

Travis had recently completed nursing school and started a new job as a nurse at Cardinal Nursing Home in South Bend. Melissa opened a local beauty salon in October.

In February their older daughter came down with a cold that Arianna also contracted.

At first they didn't think much of it, but when Arianna began wheezing they took her to the hospital.

She was diagnosed with pulmonary atresia, a rare and serious heart condition that usually shows up before birth.

Arianna's right ventricle of the heart, which allows for blood to be pumped into the body, was underdeveloped. Normally babies with this condition are born blue and diagnosed immediately after.

"She had never turned blue, never had any of the symptoms until she had a cold," said Melissa.

Travis told his job about his daughter's condition and was initially allowed to leave work to care for Arianna.

"I told them pretty much I didn't know what was going on and they took me off schedule for the rest of that week and part of the next week and when I went to go get my paycheck, that's when I found out I was pretty much being terminated," said Travis.

He said he tried to use the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, which allows workers to miss up to 12 weeks each year unpaid and still keep their job and benefits.

Unfortunately it only applies to those who have worked for their current company for more than a year and have worked at least 1,250 hours in the last 12 months.

"I talked to the DOAN and the administrator and they're all in tears and giving me hugs and stuff, talking about it wasn't by their choice, it was by corporate," said Travis.

NewsCenter 16 attempted to contact Cardinal. Locally they said they were unaware of his case and referred us to their corporate office. Our calls to the corporate offices were not returned.

Luckily for the Creer's Arianna was born while Travis was still in school, so her health care is still covered by Medicaid.

Otherwise, since Travis could not use FMLA and was fired, they would have to pay out of pocket for all of Arianna's doctor visits and upcoming procedures.

She's scheduled to undergo her first surgery later in March, but may need additional surgeries before her heart begins to function normally.

Travis said his bosses at Cardinal agreed to try to hire him back once his daughter gets well, but there is no guarantee he'll have a job or get hired at the same salary because he did not qualify for FMLA.

For more information on FMLA, click on The Big Red Bar.