Hi I am Levi’s mom I wanted to be the one to share Levis journey with you in my own words. As many of you know Levi has been in the hospital since December 9th. Levi was sick at home with what seemed to be a flu, I took him to the doctor about five times in a two week period where we were told he likely had a viral illness or flu. I then took him one night to emergency and we were again told it was just a viral illness. I can’t begin to describe how hard this was trying to help my son who had some very serious symptoms. We returned to the emergency where we quickly realized this was serious. Levi had now developed a heart murmur and the inability to walk properly as he suffered a few minor strokes. Levi had a bacterial infection that spread to his heart, and he was diagnosed with infective endocarditis. Levi needed a series of tests to determine how to treat this bacteria which was later found to be from the strep family strep pneumo. This strep bacteria strain is not covered by regular childhood vaccines which he has had all of.  He had several MRI’s and echocardiograms and we were then rushed to intensive care. We had to determine when would be the best time to do open heart surgery to remove the bacteria from his heart valve where it was obstructing crucial blood flow. To say this was the scariest and most trying time in our life is an understatement.  I was in complete shock and disbelief. How could this be happeneing to our perfect and healthy boy. Levi went in for emergency surgery on December 10th. Luckily two social workers were there to help physically hold me up as I was in such despair. The waiting during surgery was unbearable. Levi survived a four hour open heart surgery where he needed a full blood transfusion and plasma. Please remember the importance of donating blood as it does save lives. I will be donating blood when I am out of hospital and I want encourage others to do so as well. Levi ultimately required a valve to repair his heart this valve is lifelong and he will require future surgeries as he grows. The valve also requires Levi to be on a blood thinner for life, so his blood doesn’t form a clot in the valve. We will need to test his blood levels frequently to make sure they are in the range we would like. This is called point of care testing and unfortunately it is not covered by our medical system in Canada. A fee we will have to cover ourselves. This will allow Levi to have a finger poke blood test at home, rather then going to a lab for a blood draw and would be quite upsetting for him to do on a regular basis. My ultimate goal is to support Levi through all of his future appointments and provide him with the best options for care as we move forward. It is very hard for me to ask for help and I debated posting a go fund me for Levi and our family for many reasons one being his privacy. At this time it would be in the best interest for Levi to help him get him all the support care and love he needs to recover. The funds will go directly to his point of care testing and or to help with a long term goal of stability in Vancouver as this is where Levi needs to be for monitoring. We have had people asking how they can help and thank you to those who already have. We understand that this might be a hard time for people financially and no amount donated is too small and if you can’t donate at this time we completely understand.  If you are able to help and share our fundraiser Levi and our family would be so grateful. Stay safe everyone lots of love. ❤️‍ Lindsay