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Mamanista is celebrating her precious baby’s first birthday with a contest to help spread the word about the Congenital Heart Defects.
On August 9th 2006, Baby Diva was born with tetralogy of fallot–a congenital heart defect that would be fatal without surgery. A few days before she would turn three months’ old, she had open heart surgery to repair her heart.
Heart defects are among the most common birth defects–approximately 40,000 babies (1-2%) in the United States are born each year with a heart defect–and they are the leading cause of defect-related infant death. And yet, there is comparatively little funding going into researching the causes of these defects and treatment options.
Thankfully Baby Diva is now thriving wonderfully thanks to her surgery. And her family wants to celebrate by helping ensure all babies who need heart surgery have the same happy stories to tell.
Personally, I had never realized how common heart defects were until my little girl Julia was born with one. Fortunately Julia’s hole in her heart is only a small VSD and she has grown without any problems so far. But we had hoped the hole would close on its own by the time she was two… unfortunately that hasn’t happened. So she may still require surgery… but we don’t yet know.
As all mothers know there is nothing worse in the world than watching your precious baby suffer and worry that they will not survive. No mother should have to endure that pain.
Today our hearts go out to all those struggling with the issue of congenital heart defects and we join Mamanista in her celebration of her daughter’s life.
Loni says
Thank you for sharing about this. I also have a daughter with TofF and a list of other heart defects as well. She has had 2 open heart surgeries and spent 10 weeks in ICU. She is now 10 years post-op but will eventually need another surgery to “replace parts.” Yes, there are many children with CHD, and I am thankful you shared about it.
Dillyhearts says
This article grabbed my attention right away! I have several friends whose children were born with heart defects and have undergone surgeries. Thankfully all of them are now thriving. I am a strong supporter of this cause – in fact, I donate a percentage of all my website sales to the Heart Center at Children’s Hospital in Seattle. The “hearts” in Dillyhearts was inspired by my friends young children and their stories. I’ll be sure to visit Mamanista and I’ll be happy to continue spreading the word on my blog! Happy birthday Baby Diva!
Alexis says
As someone who’s had a child with serious CHDs I wish more was being done to promote education and research dollars. Thanks for this post and trying to educate others. Until you have personally been affected, you just don’t realize how common they are.
Gem says
We have very close friends whose son had to have a heart transplant at 3 months old! He’s 8 years old now and doing great, but so many babies don’t get that chance. Heading over to Mamanista’s right now!
Laura says
Thank you so much for spreading the word about CHD’s. Our daughter (1 year old now) was born with a heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and has undergone 2 open heart surgeries so far (one at 6 days old and one at 4 months old). She is facing at least one more surgery within the next 6 months to a year. God has been so faithful and always one step ahead of us. I urge everyone to please sign up to be organ and tissue donors-you never know when you or a loved one will need to benefit from a precious donor.
Mama Luxe says
Thank you so very much for mentioning our post and contest to spread the word about CHD’s.
One of the things that amazes me is that in so many cases an operation (with a high success rate, at that) can repair most of the problem and allow the child a chance at a healthy life.
Baby Diva’s cardiologist spends all of his vacation time locating children around the world who are good candidates for surgery and finding funding to bring them to the US for a life-saving operation. I wish every child who needs an operation like this could get one.
Thank God for all the researchers and surgeons who are constantly working to make these operations safer and better and, ultimately, less necessary!
Race Mom says
This is especially touching for me and my family. My neice, Londyn, was born in April with three holes in her heart. It’s just so hard and heart-breaking to know that such a small helpless baby is going through so very much just to do the very thing we take for granted. My prayers are with Susan and Baby Diva.
jen says
never that knew that about your precious daughter
my prayers are with her Susan
my favorite cousin when i was growing up had a hole in his heart too
I remember he went to the hospital for years
for checkups I think
mind you the medical world has processed a lot over the last 25 years or so thank goodness