Story~
Andrew's
mom
It’s been a very busy three years since Andrew’s birth, but we are
happy to report that our special little guy is doing quite well.
Andrew was born in December 2004 with a very severe congenital
heart defect known as Hypo-plastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS).
Due to a valve blockage before he was born, the left side of Andrew’s
heart did not fully develop – he was born with “half a heart”.
Before he was even 48 hours old, Andrew underwent a major open
heart surgery at Children’s Hospital Boston to ensure that the
right side of his heart could pump blood to his entire body. Roo
(Andrew’s nickname, after the little kangaroo in the A.A. Milne Winnie the Pooh series) spent his first month of life recovering from surgery.
When Roo was 4 months old, he had his second open heart surgery – to route blood directly to his lungs and increase the amount of oxygenated blood being pumped by his heart. In January 2007, Andrew had his third (and hopefully final) surgery to give him a circulatory system that functions with a two-chambered heart.
To look at Andrew you’d never know he has a major congenital heart defect. He laughs and plays, runs around the house and the yard, and does a great job keeping up with his twin sister, Allison. One of the only times you notice that Roo is a “heart kid” is when he goes into the pool – its hard to miss the “zipper” scar down his chest.
Children’s Hospital Boston has meant the world to us. The provided excellent care to us even before Andrew was born by diagnosing Andrew’s defect and informing us of the excellent success rates they have treating such infants. The surgery Andrew had right after birth was pioneered at Boston Children’s – before it was developed HLHS was uniformly fatal. When Mom and Dad couldn’t always be with Roo the nursing staff took excellent care of him – we would come into the hospital and find him in the arms of a nurse or volunteer making sure he got the human touch a baby needs. We are so fortunate to have this truly world class medical facility in our backyard and hope that they will continue to make significant stride in pediatric cardiac care.
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