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Every 15 min a baby is born with a congenital heart defect . 4,000 of them will not live to celebrate their 1st Birthday . I pray and hope just like every other parent who has a child born with a congenital heart defect that more awareness comes soon . Their are no cures only repairs or broken hearts !
IF YOU DON'T KNOW SOMEONE WITH A CONGENITAL HEART DEFECT, JUST WAIT.... YOU WILL.... MORE THAN 1 IN EVERY 100 BABIES BORN HAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THEIR HEARTS... THERE ARE 35 KNOWN TYPES OF C.H.D..... C.H.D' S ARE THE #1 BIRTH DEFECT, AND THE #1 CAUSE OF DEATH FROM A BIRTH DEFECT...

CHD'S KILL TWICE AS MANY CHILDREN EVERY YEAR AS ALL CHILDHOOD CANCERS COMBINED!!!
C.H.D'S Can affect any family.


My Emma Grace was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, which consisted of  a combination of 4 different heart defects.  It was found in utero.  It affects the structure of the heart and causes poor oxygen blood flow out of the heart to the rest of the body, this is what they call blue babies.  She always had a bluish color and her lips at times would be purple from the lack of oxygen.  The four defects that are caused from TOF are; Pulmonary valve stenosis- a narrowing of the main blood vessel leading to the lungs.  The next one she had was Ventricular Septal defect- this is a hole in the wall separating the two lower chambers of the heart.  Then there's the overriding aorta- this is the main artery leading out to the body, branches off the left ventricle, in TOF the aorta is shifted to the right and lies directly above the VSD (hole in between the two chambers).  The last is Right Ventricular hypertrophy - when the heart's pumping action is overworked since the vessel and aorta are too small to correctly carry the oxygen she needed her heart had to work extra to push enough through, it causes the muscular wall of the right ventricle to enlarge and thicken.  Over time this causes the heart to stiffen, become weak and eventually fail.  She passed away from complications of her first open heart surgery for repair. She finally subcomb to heart failure due the heart never relaxing from the right ventrical even after her repair.  She suffered for 68 days after surgery,  this particular complication led to other complications that made her absolutely miserable and I'm sure the pain overwhelming because it was 6 weeks after her surgery before I got to hold her again for the first time.   I just want to bring some awareness to this in the hopes that one day with help and research these statistics will decrease over time.  One thing we can do is keep her memory alive and her amazing work she did in her short time here and pray that one day with funding and research the statistics will improve and other parents won't have to watch their innocent child suffer in such a way.  For those that don't know she brought my family back to God and her testimony is amazing in what she accomplished while she was here.  I thank God every day for my blessings even through this trial and am thankful for the short time we got to share with her because that little angel taught me so much!  I pray for all the other families affected by all these CHD's and hope one day they will no longer have to suffer!

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