Our son Sam was born on a Thursday afternoon and his heart defect was detected on Saturday morning just before we were to go home with our little one.

He was taken into the room adjoining the nursery for an echo because our pediatrician said he couldn't get a good femoral artery pulse. He suspected coarctation of the aorta.

Everyone in the room was chatting until the echo started and then everyone was silent. I knew there was a problem.

The cardiologist tried to explain what the problem was, but since we had almost no knowledge of the structure or features of a heart we were very confused.

It turns out Sam didn't have coarctation of the Aorta and it seemed at the time like that was the ONLY defect he didn't have. He did have Transpostion of the Great Arteries, Transposition of the Ventricles, a large Ventricular Septal Defect, a small, left sided Right Ventricle and his heart is in his chest crooked. We were devastated!!

The pediatric cardiologist in Huntsville AL wanted to wait 6 to 8 weeks for a surgical consult. Something nagged us to get a second opinion. We traveled to St. Louis Children's Hospital where Dr. Strauss suggested the surgery was more urgent. Sam had pulmonary artery banding done at the ripe old age of 18 days. Dr. Mendeloff performed the surgery.

At 11 months Sam had a Glenn Shunt and a Damus Kaye Stansel (DKS)...also done at Children's by Dr. Mendeloff. It also went well.

In May of 2002 Sam had the Fontan. Everything looks good so far. We are hoping and praying that all goes well in the future and that this was Sam's last surgical intervention and that he lives a long, full life. Thanks for reading Sam's story!