Brandon's New Heart

My nephew, Brandon, has had an incredible journey.  When he was born born he had a hole in his heart called a ventricular septal defect or a VSD. It is a hole in the heart separating the two lower chambers of the heart. He was handling it well an the doctors wanted to wait until he was bigger to surgically fix it. At three months old he was having a harder time and it was decided it was time to fix it. In Sept 2012, Brandon had open heart surgery at CHLA to close the VSD as well as another smaller hole called an ASD.In November of 2012 at a regular cardiology check up Brandon was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is a chronic and sometimes progressive disease in which the heart muscle (myocardium), is abnormally enlarged, thickened and/or stiffened. The condition typically begins in the walls of the heart's lower chambers (ventricles), and in more severe cases also affects the walls of the upper chambers (atria). The actual muscle cells as well as the surrounding tissues of the heart become damaged. Eventually, the weakened heart loses the ability to pump blood effectively and heart failure or irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias or dysrhythmia) may occur. With this diagnosis we are told he will need a heart transplant. He was on the list for a week when my sister got the call on September 2, 2014. We are so thrilled and over the moon that he will recieve a new heart. There are so many emotions going on right now.  We thought he would be on the list so much longer and so we weren't quite prepared. We were planning on doing a lot of fundraising for him and his family to help with the

medical bills. We are so fortunate for this amazing miracle and ask that you help this loving and deserving family.  Although they do have medical insurance the amount of medication, hospital stays, doctor's visits and so much more will be very hard on them in the future. We are so grateful to everyone who has prayed for this sweet little boy. Thank you all so much for all the support!