Heart Hero of the Month
JUNE 2024
Story by, ❤️Mom Nicole
Gunner Dean Christner of Sutherland, NE was born 5lbs6oz 18.75” long at Great Plains Regional Hospital in North Platte on Friday, June 3, 2022, @ 5:51 pm (CST). Mom had gone into spontaneous labor at 38wks3days, around 3:30 am, and arrived at the hospital at 6:30 am that day. Delivery was a relaxed and joyous experience – there had been no indication of any issues during pregnancy.
When Gunner was placed on Mom’s chest the nurses immediately noticed his blue coloring and moved him over to the cart to check his oxygen levels. It all happened very fast and is a blur for Mom, other than a fond memory of “his sweet little “smurf” hands and fingers wrapping around mine” before they whisked him away. Upon realizing that his 02 level was only about 40 and not going up, he was sent to the NICU with his dad close behind to get on CPAP. In the NICU they caught his heart murmur and after a not-very-successful Echo, it was decided that he had a PDA + likely an unknown heart defect.
The CPAP was removed and around 9:00 pm mom and dad finally got to hold their new baby boy for the first time! Gunner was on and off oxygen assistance for a few days and a more accurate echo was able to be completed once Gunner had his parents there to comfort him during the scan. GPH peds were able to send results over to Cardiology at Children’s Hospital in Omaha to get a diagnosis and recommended next steps remotely, so he was able to stay where he was.
Gunner was officially diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) – which is 4 abnormalities rolled up into one CHD. Kids with TOF are often referred to as “blue babies,” for the blue color that their skin turns during “tet spells,” where their oxygen level and HR go down. Gunner is what they consider “pink tet,” as once his levels were stabilized after birth they remained quite consistent.
On June 9, at 6 days old, we busted out of the NICU and were able to go home. They sent us with a pulse oximeter and we were told not to let him get too upset, since crying hard could trigger a tet spell. As we all know, babies cry – So this made for a very anxious first few months!
At 5.5 months old, we took Gunner to Children’s Hospital in Omaha to have his “full repair” open heart surgery. The operation was performed on the morning of Friday, November 18, 2022. Some of the scariest few hours of our lives! Gunner was able to be extubated and drink a little bit of a bottle by that evening. The first night post-op was the hardest thing any of the 3 of us had experienced, due to figuring out pain management. Everyone has said that the first night is the worst part and they are right -after that recovery was pretty steady!
Gunner is the happiest kid I’ve ever been around and when he flashed his first little smile on Saturday night everything felt right in the world! All of the staff at Children’s was amazing and by Tuesday afternoon we were headed home – Gunner was able to spend his first Thanksgiving at home.
We had received Gunner’s Heart Hero cape prior to surgery and the bag of gifts supplied by Heart Heroes was such a sweet surprise as we were being discharged. The resources provided by the collaboration of Children’s and Heart Heroes have been such a blessing. It’s so fun to be able to use his cape in photos to celebrate “heartiversary” milestones! Gunner also loves his “zipper” Heart Hero teddy bear with the matching cape.
It has been so precious to see his little toddler brain process his special heart through reading books and talking about the gifts that Heart Heroes provided for him.
His surgery was considered a success! Due to the narrowing of his pulmonary valve, he may need that replaced later on in life. The technique that was used makes it a possibility that as he grows it will be wide enough and it could last his whole life the way that it is. If he does need his PV replaced, it shouldn’t be until he is an adolescent or even into adulthood. If this is the case, it would be much less invasive.
Currently, Gunner has no delays or restrictions and you would never know what our strong little guy has been through – which we know is the best-case scenario and not the outcome for all Heart Heroes.
We could not have gotten through the whole experience without our faith and God’s inexplicable peace.
