Luke was born seemingly healthy in December of 2010.  When he was 14 days old we noticed he started breathing more rapidly and was not sleeping well.  Heather, my wife, took Luke to the pediatrician while I stayed home with our then 17 month old, Isaac.  

Our pediatrician was concerned with the decreased oxygen levels in Luke’s blood so Heather and Luke traveled by ambulance to Children’s Hospital in St. Paul.  A friend was able to watch Isaac while Heather’s mom drove up from Rochester allowing me to meet them at Children’s.

Luke’s condition and vital signs continued to deteriorate in the emergency room at Children’s while they were eliminating respiratory aliments such as RSV.  Soon, after it was becoming difficult to find a pulse in his tiny legs, an x-ray of his heart was taken.  The x-ray revealed his heart was slightly larger than it should have been so a cardio team was called to investigate. After 10 seconds of an echo-cardiogram the technician informed us she knew what the issue was and quickly left the room to get the cardiologist. 

At this time Heather and I had mixed feelings, we were happy the issue causing Luke’s body to fail was finally identified after hours in the emergency room, but nervous about the unknown short, mid, or long term future for Luke (or if he would even have something other than a short-term life).

A minute later we met Dr. Rios, the man who would help Luke’s body stabilize, and the man who would give us the news we were praying for…Luke would be able to live a relatively normal (and long) life.  Dr. Rios, who is still Luke’s cardiologist diagnosed Luke with minor case of Shone’s Syndrome that unfortunately included a significant coarctation of the aorta.  In laymen’s terms, Luke was born with multiple defects on the left side of his heart, including significant narrowing of the aorta, the latter of which was preventing blood from flowing away from his heart.     

Dr. Rios initiated a medicine infusion that stopped the situation from getting worse.  From there Heather and Luke took another ambulance ride, this time to Children’s in Minneapolis where they have a Cardiovascular Care Center (CVCC) floor (world-class unit that provides a full range of services including surgeries and on site cardiac intensivists 24/7).   I met them a few minutes after they arrived and the 3 of us, plus an extremely dedicated medical team, spent the night there. 

Our next day, New Year’s Eve, started with a round of 10 care providers around 7:30am.  One of these care providers was Dr. Moga, the pediatric cardiac surgeon who would eventually repair Luke’s heart (youtube video of Dr. Moga describing what he does for a living https://youtu.be/12hF1Ld875s ). 

After some internal discussion they decided to do the surgery that afternoon.  Again, Heather and I had mixed feelings…we were happy his care decisions weren’t being based on holiday schedules but a lot had happened over the past 24 hours and we were still in shock that this was occuring.  Luke was baptized in the hospital (Rachel, one of many great nurses we had, is his Godmother) and the details of the surgery were explained to us. 

During the surgery we were in a special private waiting area where we received periodic updates from the surgical team which helped calm our nerves.  Finally, Dr. Moga came in the room and shared with us that everything went well and Luke’s little body tolerated the surgery like a champ.  When we asked about the long term prognosis Dr. Moga smiled and just said, “let him grow, he’ll be fine”.

Luke has followed Dr. Moga’s advice and is a happy 6 year old.  He might even beat his dad in the 5K.