Nolan is Why
When my son Nolan was four years old, he was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. As overwhelming as that diagnosis was, we were comforted by the belief by his team of cardiologists that it could be fixed with one surgery. Unfortunately during his surgery, the doctors discovered that his condition was much worse than originally thought. His doctors regrouped with a new plan, but this one involved a few more frightening surgeries. The plan now was just to do enough to get him to the point where he was fully grown so that they only had to do his big surgery once. He has had two additional “interim” procedures that have been wildly successful. We no longer talk in terms of when he will have his next surgery, but if he will need another surgery. Most importantly the surgery that they talk about doing now is so much less invasive. Ten years ago they talked about cracking open his chest and cutting off the blood supply to the heart and brain to complete the surgery. Now the surgery is so much less invasive and can be done with a six inch incision.
Nolan is now 21 and the advances we have seen in his lifetime have been amazing. We are overcome with gratitude and appreciation to the American Heart Association for all of the research they have done to make medical advancements like these possible. Please join me in giving to the American Heart Association to keep advancements like these happening.
