Meet Connor

Connor was born on January 11, 2008. Within the first 24 hours of his life Connor had been in two hospitals, and had two ambulance rides. The pediatrician told us he believed Connor had a heart murmur. Connor was diagnosed with a Congenital Heart Defect 12 hours after he was born. He had a hole in his heart (VSD) the size of a dime and was missing the pulmonary valve and pulmonary artery. We were then off to Iowa City for a medical intervention. We had a great pregnancy and labor, so we were shocked to discover something was wrong with our baby.

On Day 6, Connor went through an open chest surgery and they put in a BT shunt to help get more blood to his lungs to re-oxygenate his blood, since he was missing his pulmonary artery. This was to buy some time until he was a little bigger (6 months), when he would undergo open heart corrective surgery. Connor was able to go home on Day 13.

Connor was home for 2 ½ months until he had to return to Iowa City, on April 8th, for an angioplasty “ballooning” of a narrowing artery going to his left lung. We were to go home the following day, however, the ECHO showed there was fluid around his heart and they feared it was blood. So it was decided to go ahead with the corrective open heart surgery; sooner than we had hoped for. On April 10th, Connor had his first open heart surgery to correct his defects. The corrective surgery went well and there were no complications. Nothing could have prepared us for what happened next. On Saturday April 12th, at 4am, we received a call informing us that we needed to come to the hospital and that they were giving Connor some emergency medication. So we rushed to the hospital, but before we arrived, we got another call stating they had to start CPR. Connor went into cardiac arrest and coded. The medical team performed CPR for 45 minutes and reopened his chest before there was a response. They were unsure of what caused him to code; it was totally unexpected. On Sunday, the medical staff tried to get him off the ECMO machine, but Connor was unable to sustain on his own. We were told that his septum was not moving, and if that did not come back, there was no procedure to fix it. I had come to terms with the fact we might lose him. The next morning he was able to get off the ECMO machine, so that gave us some hope and we were back in fight mode. An ECHO discovered the hole that was repaired had reopened due to the CPR compressions. So they wanted to wait 8 weeks before going back in to repair the hole to give Connor’s heart a rest and time to heal.

On June 17th, Connor had open heart surgery to repair the hole again. On July 10, 2008 we were able to go home! After three months of being in the hospital, we were ready and running! We went home with 10 different medications and a feeding tube. After Connor's second repair surgery he refused the bottle and had a huge aversion to his mouth. At the end of February he FINALLY got rid of his feeding tube! It has been a long journey, but we made it through with Faith, Hope & Love.

Reasons for the heart defects are still unknown. That is why it is so important to bring awareness and support the efforts of research. Connor would have not survived without medical intervention and advances. Connor will need more open heart surgeries as he grows to resize the conduit (what they put in to create a pulmonary artery; it's a cow's artery from it's neck).

In September 2009, Connor had his heart check-up. Things overall look well, so we hope surgery is further away than what was “expected”. Connor is a true survivor, miracle and is such a joy! He will be a big brother in February 2010, when his two brothers are expected to arrive.