CHD AWARENESS WEEK ENDS TOMORROW....

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

ABOVE, is a picture montage i made of our beautiful son MATTHEW ISAIAH who was born with a heart defect called TOTAL ANOMOLOUS PULMONARY VENEOUS RETURN (TAPVR) back on MAY 2004....this montage was made when he turned TWO YEARS OLD but it is very special because it shows what a MIRACLE this little guy really is! for those that don't know, our son matthew was born with a CONGENITAL HEART DEFECT (CHD) called TAPVR and we had absolutely NO IDEA when we were in the delivery room, that there was ANYTHING wrong with our beautiful baby boy!! so, we were one of those statistics that the parents, although we had PERFECT prenatal care during our pg, we had no idea that something was wrong....this defect is VERY rare and hard to detect in a normal sono or ultra sound....you MIGHT, if you are REALLY lucky, be able to find it in utero if you have a FETAL ECHO done on the baby while still in the womb...well, since we never had a history of this, there was no fetal echo done...so, when he was born via repeat c-section, he was born BLUE and would eventually be transfered to another hospital in town that specialized in pedi-cardiac patients...the cardiologist didn't think my baby would SURVIVE the transport across town!!! he had OPEN HEART SURGERY at 8 hours old and was placed on ECMO (http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/factsheets/families/F030174/index.html) for his first 5 days, and when they took him off that, life support, they basically took him to "die a natural death"....well, THANK YOU GOD, he is here today....he is our little miracle! CHD AWARENESS is so important because this is something that can affect ANYONE because even if you don't have a HISTORY of defects (like we didn't) this can happen in your life...your child...

OUR CITY and STATE have BOTH done a CHD Week Proclamation which is WONDERFUL!! the official week is FEB. 7 THRU 14TH...there is also a WONDERFUL SUPPORT GROUP called MENDED LITTLE HEARTS (http://mlhofsa.schendelsworld.com/index.htm) that just started up here in town...it is MUCH NEEDED because there are SOOOOOO MANY KIDS AND FAMILIES AFFECTED WITH A CHD!! it is soooo important to have support!!

anyway, just wanted to remind everyone of our little miracle....we are so BLESSED!!

HERE IS AN AWARENESS MONTAGE MADE BY MENDED LITTLE HEARTS....

CHD Awareness