Dear Family and Friends:
Some of you have already read this through the email I sent out, but for those that I do not have an email for, please read below!
OKC HEART WALK 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008 @ Bricktown Ballpark
That's right, it's that time of year again! We are gearing up for the 2008 OKC Heart Walk. We had a great time last year, we had a lot of family/friends turn out to walk as 'Team Gavin'. Gavin's heart surgeon, cardiologists, nurses and other medical staff attended the heart walk. It was an amazing experience and we are pumped to walk again this next year.
As most of you know, Gavin was born in October of 2006 with a very rare congenital heart defect, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and other heart defects. HLHS is one of the most complex cardiac defects seen in the newborn. In a child with HLHS all of the structures on the left side of the heart (the side which receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it out to the body) are severely underdeveloped. Treatment involves 're-plumbing' the heart to allow the right side to do the work normally done by the left. Therefore, Gavin only has one ventricle, the right, and it does all the work. This treatment is done through a series of three surgeries. There is no long-term prognosis for the series of surgeries since the oldest children who have undergone them are only in their early twenties. Some children with HLHS eventually will require a heart transplant. Gavin has been through two open heart surgeries, heart caths, suffered a minor stroke, CT's, MRI, EEGS, weekly doctor appointments, physical therapy, speech therapy, home health care and more. This little boy is an ABSOLUTE MIRACLE and we are blessed with his smile everyday! Because of the American Heart Association, Dr. Peter Pastuszko, OKC Cardiology Team, Nurses and Staff at The Children's Hospital in OKC, Gavin is able to receive the best of care and is now a healthy and happy 1 year old! Gavin has had a tough journey in his short life, but he is a true fighter. God has blessed us and used us in so many ways because of Gavin's condition!
We are supporting the Oklahoma City Heart Walk as our way of saying Thanks for all the hard work that the AHA and doctors do in order to save the lives of many others just like Gavin! This is our second year to participate in the OKC Heart Walk. There are lots of other children with Congenital Heart Defects, the NUMBER ONE birth defect! So please help us in making awareness not only about HLHS but Heart Defects in general. We are creating a team of walkers TEAM GAVIN to help us reach a goal for the American Heart Association Walk. We know that not everyone will be able to participate with us but we wanted to invite you to visit our web page by clicking the link below. If you would like you can make a donation in honor of Gavin on his personal web page or you can just join us for the walk. Please do not feel obligated---we truly just wanted to share our project, which we are doing in honor of Gavin with you. We plan to put our 'hearts' into this yearly. Any amount would be greatly appreciated...However, there is an online minimum of $25.00 amount required so please feel free to email us for home address to send other amounts. Please feel free to pass this along to your friends and family members. Thank you to all of our 'heart' supporters out there! We love all of you and God Bless.
Adam, Faith and Gavin
Some of you have already read this through the email I sent out, but for those that I do not have an email for, please read below!
OKC HEART WALK 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008 @ Bricktown Ballpark
That's right, it's that time of year again! We are gearing up for the 2008 OKC Heart Walk. We had a great time last year, we had a lot of family/friends turn out to walk as 'Team Gavin'. Gavin's heart surgeon, cardiologists, nurses and other medical staff attended the heart walk. It was an amazing experience and we are pumped to walk again this next year.
As most of you know, Gavin was born in October of 2006 with a very rare congenital heart defect, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and other heart defects. HLHS is one of the most complex cardiac defects seen in the newborn. In a child with HLHS all of the structures on the left side of the heart (the side which receives oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it out to the body) are severely underdeveloped. Treatment involves 're-plumbing' the heart to allow the right side to do the work normally done by the left. Therefore, Gavin only has one ventricle, the right, and it does all the work. This treatment is done through a series of three surgeries. There is no long-term prognosis for the series of surgeries since the oldest children who have undergone them are only in their early twenties. Some children with HLHS eventually will require a heart transplant. Gavin has been through two open heart surgeries, heart caths, suffered a minor stroke, CT's, MRI, EEGS, weekly doctor appointments, physical therapy, speech therapy, home health care and more. This little boy is an ABSOLUTE MIRACLE and we are blessed with his smile everyday! Because of the American Heart Association, Dr. Peter Pastuszko, OKC Cardiology Team, Nurses and Staff at The Children's Hospital in OKC, Gavin is able to receive the best of care and is now a healthy and happy 1 year old! Gavin has had a tough journey in his short life, but he is a true fighter. God has blessed us and used us in so many ways because of Gavin's condition!
We are supporting the Oklahoma City Heart Walk as our way of saying Thanks for all the hard work that the AHA and doctors do in order to save the lives of many others just like Gavin! This is our second year to participate in the OKC Heart Walk. There are lots of other children with Congenital Heart Defects, the NUMBER ONE birth defect! So please help us in making awareness not only about HLHS but Heart Defects in general. We are creating a team of walkers TEAM GAVIN to help us reach a goal for the American Heart Association Walk. We know that not everyone will be able to participate with us but we wanted to invite you to visit our web page by clicking the link below. If you would like you can make a donation in honor of Gavin on his personal web page or you can just join us for the walk. Please do not feel obligated---we truly just wanted to share our project, which we are doing in honor of Gavin with you. We plan to put our 'hearts' into this yearly. Any amount would be greatly appreciated...However, there is an online minimum of $25.00 amount required so please feel free to email us for home address to send other amounts. Please feel free to pass this along to your friends and family members. Thank you to all of our 'heart' supporters out there! We love all of you and God Bless.
Adam, Faith and Gavin
Slide Show of Heart Walk 2007
2 comments:
I can't believe it's already time to gear up for this year's Heart Walk!! Ever since I read this blog I've been thinking that maybe we should make our first trip to Oklahoma with Paxton around the same time as the Heart Walk. I would love to be a part of the walk, and it would also be special to have the newest member of Team Gavin there as well. Hopefully we can work it out!!
I just wanted to say what a precious little boy you have. I have been keeping up w/ your blog since I was introduced to it in October. Betsy Gregory photographed my family and sent me your blog info. I too have a child born w/ heart defects. Our baby girl, Hope Abigail, was born November 22, 2006 with Tetrology of Fallot. We had no idea until she was born that there was any problems. It was so devastating, our other two girls were born healthy. Hope had her open heart surgery May 17th 2007 at Childrens in OKC, Dr. Pastuszko was her surgeon too. I just wanted you to know what an inspiration you are to so many parents going through similar experience. I would have loved to have been introduced to your story when Hope was born. I felt like no one else understood what we were facing. It would have helped to know someone else had been in our shoes. God bless your sweet little Gavin and you and Adam too. Maybe we'll run into you sometime.....you are in the BA area, right?? We will also be in OKC for the Heartwalk in April- "TEAM HOPE".
God Bless,
Laura & Family
(Scott, Hannah, Hadley & Hope)
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