Our baby boy has had a very rough start. He spent the first 2 months of his life in the hospital under incredibly complex medical care. These past couple of months have been unbelievably stressful and the scariest times of our lives. Having our just born child with cardiac conditions was not expected or predicted by anyone. We are humbly reaching out for help to cover the medical bills.

We are very grateful in advance for any help!

Our little heart warrior story has had an enormous impact in our lives. It is important to us to share his miraculous story with all of you. If you or anyone you know is going through a similar situation, there is always hope.

This is our little miracle boy's story…

Our precious son, Lionel, we call him Leo, was born full term on the night of July 9th. He was taken to the NICU very soon after he was born due to having cardiac related problems. After several hours of waiting, the cardiologist explained to us that our son was suffering from coarctation of the aorta and he needed to be transferred to a hospital with a pediatric cardiac ICU (PCICU) to be treated.

For reference, a coarctation means that there is a narrowing in the aorta (the body’s main artery) forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood. There is much more medical detail that goes along with this, but this is the simplest way I can explain it.

Our baby boy was transferred to the PCICU a few hours later. I was still recovering from delivering him, so I couldn’t go to the hospital with him.

On his first night in the PCICU, my husband received a call from one of the doctors saying that Leo was not doing well. His heart was not functioning the way it should be. The doctor proceeded to say that they were intervening with blood transfusion, multiple medications, oxygen, and a breathing tube to support Leo’s heart.

My husband asked the doctor if our boy was going to die. The doctor with complete professionalism responded: “...I can’t tell you what is going to happen tonight, but, if he gets any worse, it will not be good. If he gets through tonight and is the same or better, we will be in a different place.”

It was the longest night of our lives. Not knowing if our child was going to survive was not something we ever thought we would have to go through.

With all the medical support possible, it helped our son make it through the night, but he was still in fragil condition.

Once I was discharged the next morning, we immediately drove to the hospital where Leo was. I will never forget this image of my tiny little baby with tubes, IV’s, and lines all over his small body, with monitors around him beeping whenever his oxygen was low, whenever his blood pressure was high, and everything else.

Initially, the medical team agreed that Leo needed surgery. It was going to be an open heart surgery to place a couple of pieces of equipment to help the heart be able to pump blood with ease.

The day before this major surgery, the breathing tube was removed and it was a surprise for the doctors that Leo was breathing comfortably. After closely monitoring him without having the breathing tube, the surgery was put on hold and soon after was canceled because our little Leo was breathing, with no issues, on his own.

Leo continued to be able to breathe on his own, so the doctors proceeded to wean him off of the oxygen, lines, and most medications. With his continued improvement, the medical staff were confident that Leo was ready to be moved to the floor, with the plans of being sent home soon after.

Just days before being discharged, I noticed that Leo was getting out of breath very quickly after taking a couple of sips from his bottle. In addition, he was not gaining weight, and he was having several episodes of vomiting. These symptoms were showing one after the other, day by day. A blood test was done, and the results came back showing that our baby boy was having heart failure, which meant that Leo needed surgery. Leo was taken back to the PCICU to closely monitor him and to start getting him ready for surgery.

At 6 weeks of age, our Leo had heart surgery, which lasted four hours. After anxiously waiting, one of the surgeon assistants came out to the waiting room with a smile to tell us that the surgery was over and went smoothly. 

Post operation, Leo was in a breathing tube, IV’s, oxygen, under pain medications, and sedation. His recovery was quick and he was improving like a champion!

Just a couple of days later he was ready to be moved back to the floor to continue with his recovery for a few more days. It was a day and night difference. Leo has been feeding very well and more each day without getting tired or out of breath. He was gaining weight, and breathing normally.

At exactly 7 weeks of age, my little Lion was finally ready to be discharged!!

We are still processing what happened these past two months, but we can confidently say that our little boy is a miracle. We are eternally grateful to God for allowing to have our baby Leo with us. 

Once again, we are very grateful for any and all of your support!