Hi my name is Renee and I am fundraising for my best friends little guy Eli for his up coming heart surgery on May 31st to help with bills and expenses during this time. Here is Eli's story.... So, When Eli was born during a routine appointment the doctor had noticed a murmur so we got referred to a pediatrician in Brantford, from there we were referred to a cardiologist in Cambridge. When we got home from the echocardiogram we were told to rush up to Hamilton Sickkids first thing the next morning.

The next morning we went up to Mcmaster Sickkids where they did their own tests. Quickly it was discovered that Eli was 2 weeks away from Organ failure, as there was insufficient oxygen supply to his organs. He had what was called aortic stenosis. Pretty uncommon in pediatrics. It was also determined that he had a malformed aortic valve that would need a transplant at a later date. Immediately we needed to get the narrowing of his valve fixed so from Mcmaster we were rushed to downtown Toronto sickkids where he underwent a balloon catherization to fix the narrowing. He ended up with blood clots in his legs, we were sent home giving bloodthinners by needle twice a day to each one of his legs. We had 2 appointments a month at mcmaster and homemade came into our home for the first 3 months of Elijah's life.

We've been following up waiting for that moment when he needs that valve repair. We were initially told 10-11 years of age hopefully full grown, but his Cardiologist and team up at sick kids Toronto believe now is the time for Elijah's heart to be fixed. Eli will undergo a procedure called a Ross Kono procedure. This means that the take the pulmonary valve and place it on the aortic valve and they put a bovine, mechanical valve or a human cadaver valve in its place where the pulmonary valve was. This is a pretty serious surgery for a very lively 9 year old. Surgery time is 6+ hours, and he will need to be in the hospital for a week or two. During this time, our family needs to be together. Ronald Mcdonald house is an option and we are on the waiting list, but there is no guarantees. Hotels downtown can be costly, as well as bills accumulating and the rest of the worries that come with it like eating, laundry, gas etc.