Ethan’s Journey

My kid needs a heart transplant.  Those are hard words to hear.  17 1/2 years ago, Ethan graced us with his presence.  He was a healthy little 8 lb 4 oz boy.  He was a good little baby. He was friendly, usually only cried if hungry, tired or soiled. When he was 8 months old, Ethan was diagnosed with Shone Syndrome.  It was found by accident.  He had the sniffles and I wanted to make sure he was going to be healthy enough for his upcoming inguinal hernia repair.  His doctor detected a murmur.  She called and got us an appointment within 2 hours at pediatric cardiology.  6 hours later......He had a narrowed mitral valve, narrowed aortic valve, bicuspid instead of a tricuspid aortic valve and a narrowed aorta.  His aorta was so narrowed that he needed to have surgery.  He had to have the narrowed portion removed and the aorta re-attached so he could get normal blood flow to all his cute little fingers and toes.  They cut his blood supply off to his brain for 11 minutes.  We were told he m