Maddie and I are participating in the Race for Every Child for our son Teddy, and so many children like him.
Our journey began at our 20 week anatomy scan, where we learned that Teddy‘s heart had not developed normally. After consulting with multiple doctors and hospital systems, we received the news that Teddy had a critical heart defect and would require open heart surgery shortly after birth. Enter Dr. Mary Donofrio at Children’s National, who was able to provide us with a specific diagnosis of Criss Cross Heart with Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA) and a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). Dr. D also gave us the gift of confidence and hope, making us believe that Teddy would be in great hands with her cardiac team.
Teddy was born at Washington Hospital Center in March and immediately transferred to Children’s, where he underwent a surgical procedure to stabilize his heart. He remained there until he underwent open heart surgery at two weeks old. Miraculously, Dr. d’Udekem was able to perform a complete repair of Teddy‘s heart, providing us the ability to take Teddy home with the hope that he may not need additional surgeries in the future.
We feel so fortunate for the care that our family received throughout our stay in the Children’s CICU and are determined to do whatever it takes to help the teams there continue delivering on their mission for patients and their families. We hope you will join us in this fight by making whatever contribution you can!
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