Saving Little Hearts

When we found out we were having another blessing just a few months after our first son was born we were just ecstatic because we wanted our children close as we already had a little girl in 2000. Well Samuel was due in September and all was going so well. Samuel was born at 5:54pm on September 11, 2003 he weighed 6lbs 11oz and was 21 and half inches long. We came home from the hospital the next day as they said he was perfect. I began to notice that he was sweating a lot and it was time for his 2 week check up and he just didn't seem right. I took him in and his doctor said it was just a cold and not to worry about it. I just had this feeling though that there was more but I figured he would be ok. Well on October 7th 2003 I decided I was ready to start working again so I took him to the daycare where his brother and sister were (they were the only 3 kids she had to care for). I went to work and not 2 hours later and she called and said Sammy was not breathing right. I left work and immediately I seen he was retracting every time he would breath and he was just soaked with sweat. I loaded him and the other 2 up and went to my mom's and called the hospital to see what to do as I was in a panic. I brought him down to Princeton MN to Fairview Regional Hospital where he seen Dr Luther Philaya. The minute he seen him Dr Philaya said we needed to call in a neonatal team and asked me where I wanted him to go and I said down to the U of M Campus. I called his dad and had to tell him he needed to get there fast as he may have to say good bye to his little boy. The NICU team got there and transported him to the U and that is where Dr Peter Hessline diagnosed him with a very severe COARCTATION OF THE AORTA and BICUSPIDAL AORTIC VALVE. He told us if we would have waited 24 hours our son would have passed on. He was rushed across the river to the U of M Campus where they do the surgeries on Oct 9, 2003 at 5am. He was taken into surgery at 7am and brought back out at 4:30pm. His surgeon Dr John Foker came out to tell us that he had repaired the coarc with a left subclavian artery flap procedure so it was all natural and would grow with him but as far as the valve they left it as it was functioning normally for that type of valve. Sammy spent 10 days in the hospital and was discharged. He was sent home with Captopril, Digoxin, and Lasix but within 30 days was off the Digoxin and Lasix. He had some very special people in his life down there at the U of M (University of Minnesota) like his cardiologists Dr Anna Tsirka, Dr Elizabeth Braunlin, Dr Lee Pyles, of course Dr Hessline and his awesome surgeon Dr, Foker who above all is one of the leading pediatric heart surgeon's in the world. Sammy is now almost 3 years old and the only thing he is on is Enalapril as he was left with high blood pressure which in some cases is normal. I must give one more BIG THANK YOU to the Ronald McDonald House in Minneapolis because without you we would never have been able to be with our sweet Sammy all together.