CJ, born 2008
CJ was born April 25, 2008. He experienced some breathing problems right after he was born and this is how they came to find his heart problem. He was diagnosed with non-impacted cardiomyopathy.
When he was five days old, he was moved to University of Mississippi where he stayed until he was 21 days old. The doctors told us to take him home and enjoy him while we could and maybe he would be able to go to Arkansas for a heart transplant. God obviously had a different plan than the doctors.
When he was to be discharged, he ran a temperature for less than 10 minutes, long enough to make them keep him. The last time he ran the temp, his vitals did go down long enough to give us all a scare, but this is what made them decide to go ahead and send him to Arkansas Children's Hospital. He was transferred May, 16th by helicopter.
We were very optimistic about this place. This hospital is absolutely amazing. I believe that if anyone can help save our child's life, it will be here.
Even if God does not decide to let us keep our little one on this earth, he has already made a tremendous impact on our family's life. Our little one is a true fighter and I believe that God has definitely put him here for a reason.
We opted against his heart transplant and we were promised that he would surely die within six months. We put it all in God's hands. He went back to UMC to be weaned off the IV drugs that had been tried twice and failed twice. He was admitted into hospice when he was discharged at 45 days old.
He has defied all odds and continued to grow, we had a very special first birthday with him and every month leading up to that! When he was 14 months, I asked the doc if a Beta blocker could be introduced after doing some research and learned that it could increase his heart function.
When we returned to the cardiologist, they performed another echo and they found that his heart function had tripled! He was then discharged from hospice after being under their care for 14 months.
What a joy that filled our hearts hearing the news that what we already believe was confirmed by the doctors. We went back at 18 months and had another echo done, same thing, Dr. Smith called him his miracle baby as his heart function was almost normal.
He is now in the process of weaning him from all of his 10 meds, decreasing most of the dosages and this already makes the load so much lighter. The Doctor hopes if all goes well, Christopher will no longer be on any medications with the exception of the Beta Blocker and his captopril. He is truly a miracle! Faith and prayer will take you places that money and technology cannot!
Story by Christopher's mom, Kristi - MISSISSIPPI