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NEED TO KNOW
- Rory Feek has shared that his 12-year-old daughter Indiana is recovering after her open-heart surgery
- Indiana, who has Down syndrome, was diagnosed with a hole in her heart shortly after she was born in 2014
- Her surgery was meant to take place on Wednesday, June 24, but was pushed back to the following day
Rory Feek’s daughter is recovering after her open-heart surgery this week.
The country singer, 61, shared on his Substack earlier this week that Indiana, 12, would be undergoing the surgery on Wednesday, June 24, but it ended up being pushed back to Thursday morning.
The preteen, who has Down syndrome, was diagnosed with a small hole in her heart shortly after she was born in 2014. Feek said the family has been aware for a few months that she’d need open-heart surgery as the hole began to cause complications.
Feek posted on Substack on Thursday evening that his daughter had had the procedure and was recovering in the ICU with him and his wife Rebecca, Indiana’s stepmom, by her side.
“When we walked into the room and Indiana heard our voice, her tears that began falling caused a chain reaction from her Mama and me,” he wrote.
“Hers because she’s frightened and in pain, and not fully understanding what’s happening, and why she has all the tubes and wires attached to her. Ours because it hurts us to see her in so much pain that we can’t make go away.”
Feek said that Indiana was in and out of sleep post-surgery, and was confused and tearful while awake.
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He added he felt like he needed the extra day delay “to process all that her little heart, and ours, was about to go through,” explaining, “I’m not sure Indy needed the extra day, but I did.”
He said that Indiana “turned a corner,” accepting the need for surgery a few days before and having fun in the meantime. “Right up until they came to wheel her off to surgery, she was playing her new doll Rosemary, winning at Uno, and watching her little two-year-old friend Ardi (who has almond eyes) play tambourine.”
A nurse updated Feek and his wife hourly, at one point telling them the surgeon had found something concerning, but it “turned out to be fine.”
Despite some difficult moments, the procedure went smoothly. “The hole in her heart is closed, the blockages are cleared, and she should make a full recovery and live a full, long life,” Feek finished. “Thank you Jesus.”
According to the National Down Syndrome Society, about half of all babies born with Down syndrome have a heart condition, with holes being among the most common. Some will show symptoms at birth, and some are diagnosed in utero.
“In February 2014, just a few days after Indy was born, after a very troubling appointment with a local doctor, we took Indiana to Nashville to have her heart checked out,” Feek wrote in one of his earlier Substack posts.
“At the time of that first visit, we were told that Indiana had what is called a VSD (ventricular septal defect)… that would most likely close up in time, and that in the years to come we would need to continue keeping an eye on.”
In addition to Indiana, Feek has two adult daughters, Heidi and Hopie, from his first marriage to Tamara Gilmer, though he found out in 2025 that he was not Hopie’s biological father. After he and Gilmer divorced, he married Indiana’s mom, Joey Feek, who died from metastatic cervical cancer in 2016.
In July 2024, he married Rebecca, who was Indiana’s teacher.