Joshua, born 2004

Joshua was born December 21, 2004. On the second day at the hospital, the pediatrician came by and said she needed to talk to me about him. I didn't think anything of it. She started to tell us that the murmur didn't go away. We knew nothing of the murmur in the first place. The pediatric cardiologist came in and said that Joshua had a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. My world came crashing down on me. I blamed myself. I thought I did something wrong.

 

Joshua came home as a blue baby. On January 11, 2005, we had a weekly visit to the cardiologist. Well, that day, he said we needed to get him to Children's Hospital in New Orleans right away. That night they admitted him and scheduled surgery the next morning. They put a right BT shunt in to buy him some time until he got older. He had to be on the bypass machine during surgery and as the weeks followed, they tried removing the nitric oxide machine and he failed. So that meant three more days before they would try again. Finally, he recovered and we came home. We were there about a month.

 

After having a catheterization, they told us it was time for the repair. His second surgery was on July 20th. Everything went well. Joshua had another catheterization because his left pulmonary artery had an obstruction. They tried an angioplasty but it failed. His third surgery was March 20, 2006 to correct his branch pulmonary artery stenosis. He recovered well and were discharged 6 days later.

 

I thank God and all my family for the thoughts and prayers for my son. He has been through so much for a little man. We love him so much. His sister, Breanna takes it very hard for a 4 year old through his hospital stays. She loves him so.

 

He is a big boy from birth and has remained a big little man.

 

Story by Joshua's mom, Lisa - Louisiana