written by Amber, Oliver’s mother

 

Hi!  Our family would like to introduce you to our second son, Oliver, he was born in October of 2015.  Oliver’s family includes: mom, Amber; dad, Scott; big brother Henry, June of 2014.  

 

When I was pregnant with Oliver we, dad and I, went to his 20-week ultrasound, thinking it was silly – we wanted to be surprised about baby’s gender at birth. Four hours later and meeting a pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Sami, and getting our first echo we realized the importance of the 20 week ultrasound goes beyond the gender of the baby. Before Oliver was born we knew he had a cardiac outflow issue, but that was it. 

 

My water ruptured at 32 weeks and 6 days – Oliver was born the same day. The next day we had his after birth echo, that day we learned Oliver would need open heart surgery to fix his heart. His surgery would need to be done 3 hours away in Omaha – we live in Sioux Falls, SD. Oliver flew, by himself, to Omaha before he was 24 hours old. Oliver’s heart has disease of the mitral valve with a Melody Valve placed in the mitral position, surgically corrected AVSD, and recurrent Coarctation of the Aorta with a stent placed in his aorta.

 

Oliver is 18 months old and has spent 168 days in hospital with four fixed wing flights to Omaha Children’s. He has required three open-heart surgeries, three cardiac cath lab surgeries, two brain surgeries, and one stomach surgery. His first open-heart surgery was at one week old – this fixed his AVSD, improved his mitral valve, and improved his coarctation of the aorta. At one month he needed his first cardiac cath lab for a balloon angioplasty for his recurrent coarctation of the aorta. At three months old he needed his second cardiac cath lab for a balloon angioplasty for his recurrent coarctation of the aorta. At six months he needed his third cardiac cath lab for a balloon angioplasty with stent placement for his recurrent coarctation of the aorta. At 16 months old he needed his mitral valve repaired – this was done with his second open-heart surgery. While in hospital recovering from his second open-heart surgery something changed in his mitral valve and his mitral valve gave way – likely due to high blood pressure. 10 days after his second open-heart surgery, Oliver had his third open-heart surgery. This time he had his mitral valve replaced with a Melody Valve. He has two implanted devices in his heart – Melody Valve in the Mitral Position and stent in his aorta – he will outgrow both of those devices. He will likely need at least three more open-heart surgeries and three cath lab surgeries to replace those devices with bigger devices. 

 

Our family is thankful for Children’s Omaha and their cardiology department – especially Dr. Hammel and Dr. Delaney. Without their dedication and kindness, Oliver would not be here today. We are also grateful for our pediatric cardiologist in Sioux Falls – Dr. Sami – his close communication with our family and with Children’s Omaha has helped Oliver get the help he needs at the appropriate times. Oliver is now a happy two-year old boy who is working very hard at rolling over, holding his head up, and sitting. Oliver loves his brother, Henry, and always wants to play with him.