Baby Masons' Lifesaving Heart Surgery Needs

August 6, 2019 Mason Lee Templeton was born by emergency c-section.  The doctors treating Mason were quick in recognizing that he had a heart murmur and did an echo-cardiogram. That test showed he had a rare congenital heart defect and he was sent to a larger hospital to be treated by a team of medical professionals in NICU.  His mother would join him in a couple days.  After that, the NICU doctors did more tests and joined forces with Mercy Children's Hospital in Kansas City (about 160 miles from home).  When he was 1 week old he was flown by med-flight to Kansas City for more tests and treatments.  Before he was two weeks old Baby Mason had to undergo open heart surgery.  The team of pediatric cardiology surgeons worked on repairing the 3 defects to his heart for approximately 8 hours. 
Before surgery and after surgery there have been many of complications that Mason has had to deal with.  Just a couple of days ago, his heart went out of rhythm and it had to be shocked back into rhythm.  Today they were able to, finally, get the breathing tube out and him off of the ventilator (1 week after surgery) and now we found out there is damage to his left vocal cord (glottic gap). This may or may not heal on its own.  Unfortunately, it is just another set back in his road to recovery and being able to come home.  This poor little guy has been through so much and his primary care givers are struggling physically, emotionally, mentally, and financially.  At this time, Mason does not have insurance to pay for all of his medical needs, and both of his primary caregivers are having to have off time from work unpaid.  Mason is expected to be in the hospital for a few more weeks and after that he will have multiple follow up visits with multiple different specialist, and more than likely home health care and/or outpatient therapy (unknown completely at this time).