My 5 year old son Owen went to John Hopkins on August 18th for his planned 4th open heart surgery for his congenital heart disease. He was born with half a working heart among many other medical conditions.
Owen was thriving at home before surgery, however his heart needed this surgery called the Fontan.
Unfortunately, while in surgery on the bypass machine- Owen's brain was not getting the blood flow it needed and he endured bilateral strokes. He had a large stroke on the right side of his brain, and a smaller one to the left side. He also had two focal seizures and needed to be emergently intubated, medically sedated and paralyzed for about a week.
Along with all that, his kidneys and liver took huge hits and were not well for weeks.
While hospitalized, he unfortunately experienced severe anxiety, delirum, insomnia, ptsd..etc. Owen went from not being able to lift his head, move his left arm or leg to NOW being able to walk, play, jump, etc. He IS using his left arm but is still a work in progress. His behavior, attention span, balance, and awareness to his left side have all been affected but a work in progress.
We spent 5 weeks at Hopkins and 3 weeks at Kennedy Krieger at inpatient neuro rehab. He has worked SO hard and fought SO hard. I am so so proud of him. He still has a long road to recovery.
This fundraiser is to help alleviate expenses for Owen's heart surgery, rehab stay, adaptive equipment for home, medication copays..etc.
Our family is DEEPLY thankful for all the support through this!!!
OWEN STRONG!!
