Help Lincoln's Journey to a Healthy Heart

Story

Hello my name is Candy Hostetler. I am reaching out to you today asking for support for our little heart warrior Lincoln’s journey to California to receive specialized heart surgery. Link is an almost 5 year old Congenital Heart Disease CHD patient with a rare condition called Truncus Arteriosus (TA), which affects about 250 babies born each year. Link is at a point in his young life that he needs specialized heart surgery and the best place for him to receive it is 2,573 miles from home at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto California. For those of you who don’t know Lincoln here’s a little of his story. Link is an amazing, smart, loving, playful 4, almost 5 year old little boy. He has a big family with 2 grownup brothers, Devin and Carsin, 3 brothers at home, Layne, Myles, and Kyle plus his dad Tim and I. He’s also the best uncle to his little nephew Jeremiah. He loves to play with his toys doing “set ups”, he has a great imagination. He also loves playing outside, watching YouTube, anything his brothers are doing, and his cats. Although he was born with TA and his heart isn’t working correctly, he doesn’t let it slow him down. He takes his meds, thankfully just aspirin for now, like a champ and wears his zipper scar proudly. Small but mighty we always say. Truncus Arteriosus can happen for many reasons but Link’s is due to a rare genetic disorder DiGeorge Syndrome. TA is when the heart forms one main blood vessel , instead of two, mixing oxygenated and deoxygenated blood together. If left untreated it will lead to heart failure so surgery is needed within the first few weeks of life. Link’s TA causes him to have Pulmonary Hypertension, pounding/racing heart, trouble gaining weight, and occasional shortness of breath. His DiGeorge syndrome can cause all sorts of problems as well, but that’s a whole other story and so far no major issues other than it causing his TA. He also had two VSD’s ( ventricular septal defect), which have been repaired. He had his first open heart surgery at 8 days old. Since then he has had 6 heart catheter with balloon angioplasty, two stents placed and a 2nd open heart surgery. As well as many doctors visits, tests and hospital stays. He is a trooper though. He was running the halls 24 hrs after his open heart and discharged after 3 days. He truly is a super hero! Despite his energetic way of life his heart is sick and he will require more surgery and testing as he gets older. Link is in need of one of those surgeries now. His surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh can not do anything more to help him here. He needs specialized surgery from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital of Stanford in Palo Alto California. The doctors there have been working for years perfecting a special heart surgery called Pulmonary Artery Reconstruction PAR, and is the #1 place in the world for this type of surgery. Links doctors feel this is the best thing for him so they referred him and the doctors there excepted him as a patient. PAR is referred to as “life changing” and could give him near normal heart function, which can help with the blood pressure and hopefully help him grow, among other things. Link’s surgery is scheduled for October and we will be there 5 to 6 weeks or longer depending on how long it takes for him to recover. Thankfully Stanford is big on family involved healing and support, so all 5 of us will be accompanying him on his journey. Hopefully housing will be available from the Ronald McDonald house, however other expenses will add up quickly. I am asking that you find it in your hearts to make a donation to help healing Lincoln’s heart. Your donation will help with travel expenses, meals, help supplement unpaid time off and any unexpected expenses. Our family greatly appreciates any donation and all the good vibes and prayers you’d like to give to help with Link’s heart surgery journey. Thank you for your support, The Hostetlers