Ryan Charles was born on March 29, 2001. After already having a healthy son 2-1/2 yrs earlier, we didn't expect anything different this time. When Ryan was born he was "blue" and the doctors and nurses said he was "bruised". A heart murmur was also heard but nothing much was done about it. The next day my husband was changing Ryan and noticed that his hands and feet this time were extremely blue, so we called a nurse who took him to check him out. After about 3 hrs we were finally told the horrific news that he had a severe heart defect and needed to be airlifted to Miami Children?s hospital.

That night at MCH we were told he had tricuspid atresia and would need surgery ASAP. Of course we were devastated and couldn't believe this was happening to us. He had a cardiac catheterization and then a shunt was put in when Ryan was 6 days old. He did remarkably well except for a little bit of a feeding (sucking) problem and we were home in 2 weeks. He was on Lasix, digoxin and baby aspirin.

For the next couple of months Ryan did wonderful. He was a great eater, never spit up or anything and a wonderful baby. His bi-directional Glenn was scheduled in October at 7 months old but kept getting delayed due to a respiratory infection that we couldn?t get completely rid of. Finally at 8 1/2 months old he had his 2nd cardiac catheterization and his 2nd surgery. He did great and we were home very soon afterward.

Ryan is doing so well that you would never guess he has a severe heart defect. Sometimes it scares me that he is doing so well. He is walking and running and keeping up with his big brother!! He babbles a lot but is not much of a talker yet!! But I know that will come soon. He just started wearing eyeglasses for astigmatism and is doing very well with them. He was on digoxin and baby aspirin but was just recently taken off of all medications. His sats are at about 84%. They say his next surgery (the Fontan) will be anywhere between the ages of 3-5. He did have a 3rd cardiac cath in January, 2002 where they put a balloon in his right pulmonary artery, and so far that is doing just fine.

We enjoy Ryan every day and thank God for getting us through the difficult times and look forward to a very happy, healthy active life for our little boy!