| An active
little girl, Sarah participates in cheerleading and does a number
of other things that girls her age do. What makes her different
is what she has had to go through with her health since she was
born.
Sarah was born with pulmonary valve stenosis – which narrows
the valve that takes blood from the heart to the lungs –
and an atrial septal defect (ASD), an opening in the heart wall
that causes the heart to do extra work.
Sarah’s mother, Lola Walters, said the defects weren’t
found until a normal check-up showed a heart murmur. Sarah was
not yet six months old. She said that she at first thought it
was not a big deal, but was later shocked to find out what needed
to be done.
“Things seemed fine until November (of 2006),” Walters
said. “(Then we found that) the hole in her heart had doubled
in size.”
She was told to be concerned and make sure Sarah didn’t
turn a bluish color or become extremely tired. Walters noticed
one day Sarah was falling asleep in her food.
When Walters found out her daughter had to have surgery, she was
worried that it may have to be open heart surgery, which is the
way ASD had been treated prior to 2002.
The cardiologist told her they would be doing a different procedure,
one that involved going in through a vein in Sarah’s leg.
The procedure would put in place something called the AMPLATZER
Septal Occluder, which are two small discs made from wire mesh.
The surgery would take only two hours and Sarah would only have
to be in the hospital overnight. Only 50 surgeries of this type
are performed a year.
The surgery took place in late December at Cincinnati Children’s
Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati.
“The cardiologist explained everything to us and to (Sarah),”
Walters said.
The hardest part for Walters was the time Sarah spent in surgery.
“You feel like you’re nonexisting,” she said.
Sarah came out just fine and even wanted popsicles. She understood
what she had been through and has even told her fellow students
she cannot be hit in the chest. Her regular check-up in January
showed that everything was “perfect,” Walters said.
She will go back to the doctor in July. The only medicine she
is on currently is one baby aspirin a day.
Walters said she believes a miracle happened. Because the cardiologists
were leaning more towards performing open-heart surgery even up
to the day before the surgery, she said she is “very thankful”
that they did the other procedure and that things turned out so
well.
“With her heart working so hard, (eventually) it would just
stop,” she said.
Throughout it all, Walters said she’s been honest with Sarah
about her condition, something she said is important for parents
of children with congenital heart defects (CHDs) to do.
“Treat your child like a normal child,” she said.
She also encourages parents to pray and have faith.
“Talk to people whose children have been through it. Ask
the cardiologist more about it,” she said. “There
is all kinds of information, you’ve just got to know where
to find it.”
This year, Walters will take part in the “Walk for Awareness
of Congenital Heart Defects” that is scheduled for Feb.
24 at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center. She has not
been involved in past years, but a friend of hers, Katie Columbia,
is the chairperson for God’s Special Little Hearts, Inc.
– a local organization Columbia started to help families
affected by CHDs.
According to statistics found by God’s Special Little Hearts,
a child is born with a heart defect every 15 minutes and CHDs
are the No. 1 birth defect found in infants.
Columbia came up with the idea for the walk and the first one
was held last year. As a mother of a child with a CHD, Columbia
said she felt like helping families affected by CHD is something
God wanted her to do.
Her son, Isaiah, is 2 years old and was born with Hypoplastic
Left Heart Syndrome – which basically means he has half
a heart. He has had two open heart surgeries and will have a third
late this year or early next year. His heart will never be completely
healed.
Columbia said she feels privileged to help other families and
said she doesn’t feel that it is a burden.
“There’s always a good in everything,” she said.
God’s Special Little Hearts has delivered 17 care packages
to families at Children’s Hospital. Seventy-five percent
of the proceeds from the Heart Walk will go towards CHD research
at the hospital. There is currently no other walk – that
Columbia knows of – that is specifically for CHDs.
There have been other fund-raisers for the group. They have done
a cookbook with the Extension Homemakers and plan to have other
events later this year.
In addition to Owen County, Carroll, Grant and Gallatin Counties
are involved in the walk. Columbia said she hopes to one day have
other events in those counties.
This year’s CHD Walk will take place from 2 to 8 p.m. on
Feb. 24. at the Family Life Center. Groups from churches, families
and other participants will walk to show their support of CHDs.
A silent auction will be going on and a quilt will be raffled.
There will be a book fair as well as an inflatable, balloons and
face painting for the children. Dinner will be served at 5 p.m.
Information will be available on CHDs and a “Wall of Tribute”
will honor those who have lost or are still fighting a CHD. For
more information, contact Katie Columbia at 463-2450 or rkaecolumbia@earthlink.net.
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