Hunter's Condition

We wanted to make sure everyone knew about Hunter. He is currently at Primary Children's Medical Center in the Pediatric/Cardiac ICU. He needs to be there because he has what is called a Coarctation of the Aorta, which basically means the major artery coming out of his heart has a narrowing in it that is restricting the blood flow to his lower extremities. He will need surgery to repair this. We started noticing some issues Thursday because he was sleeping a lot more than usual and his appetite was not as good as usual. He also had a soft, little bump on his head that Tricia was concerned about so she called the Wee Care clinic where we take our kids to ask them about it. They didn't know what it was over the phone so they asked us to come in to the clinic in Layton to have it checked out. We had a 9:30p appointment so we kind of kicked my family out, who came over to visit for a minute, around 9:00p so we could make it to the appointment. Normally Madi goes to bed around 8:30, but we decided to take her because we thought she would fall asleep and we would be in and out really quick. So we get down there and Tricia takes Hunter in while I stayed in the van with Madi, thinking it will be fast. So I'm in the van maybe 15 mins when I get a call on my cell. It's Tricia. I answer and she tells me that Hunter is having issues breathing and they're having trouble getting a pulse from his upper leg and they need to take him over to the ER in the Davis Hospital, which is literally next door, to have them look at him. I headed in with Madi immediately to meet Tricia inside. We get to the ER and they start doing all sorts of stuff to Hunter, taking blood, x-rays, the works. The x-ray of his chest showed he had a little fluid in his lungs as well as an enlarged heart. This prompted them to call Primary Children's to have Hunter life flighted down there. Luckily my parents live right down the road so they were able to come over and support us as well as watch Madi that night while Tricia and I drove down to Salt Lake. Hunter flew down there right before midnight and was down there in 10 mins. Tricia and I obviously got down there a little later. When we got there, they had Hunter in the ER there doing more tests and a cardiologist was looking at his heart. The cardiologist informed us that Hunter's left ventricle looked small and that he could possibly have Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Our hearts just sunk when we heard that. I had two sisters, Katie and Keri, that had that same disease and passed away at very young ages from it. I called my dad just to confirm that's what they had and when I told him Hunter may have it, he too was shocked. They moved Hunter up to the ICU around 4am and continued to monitor him there. Tricia and I stayed with him all night and most of the next day, getting about 2 hours of sleep over a 40 hour period. During that time we found out that Hunter's left ventricle was a little small, but not as small as kids who have Hypoplastic Left Heart. The real problem was the coarctation, which is not as serious. The past few days they've been trying to stabilize Hunter and get him healthy enough for surgery while the cardiologists have been trying to decide if they need to just repair the aorta and hope the left ventricle is big enough to handle the load or if we need to go a different route. The general concensus is that he will be just fine if they just repair the aorta so tomorrow we should know when his surgery will be. It's been a tough few days, but I feel extremely grateful that we caught this before it was too late. One doctor said that without treatment, Hunter would have lasted about a week in his condition so I'm glad Tricia is a worry-wart and insisted on taking him in to have the lump on his head checked out, which turned out to be nothing by-the-way. We're doing OK though. It's really good news that just the aorta needs fixed. This will allow Hunter to grow up and live a normal life with a normal life expectancy and be able to be active and still play sports if he chooses. We'll try and let everyone know what happens this next week as Hunter has this surgery. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.