My name is Liam, I'm a 10 year-old heart warrior, and thanks to the incredible doctors and nurses at the Colorado Children's Hospital Heart Institute, my heart is strong, and produces plenty of oxygen for me to do anything I want....including riding in the Courage Classic for my hear warrior little brother, Aidan.
Soon to be 6 years-old, Aidan was born with two completely different heart defects than me - Bicuspid Aortic Valve (BAV), and severe Coarctation of the Aorta (COA), a congenital deformation that causes the aorta to narrow, restricting blood flow to the body.
Aidan miraculously “healed his own heart”, in a very rare instance of a self-correcting coarctation, so unlike me, he was thankfully able to avoid open-heart surgery.
Thankfully our cardiologist, Dr. Darst, allowed him a little extra time as a baby to see how his heart deformation would progress before scheduling his surgery.
Aidan, or “Tooky”, as we call him in our family is a true force of nature, with amazing strength, big feelings, a great sense of humor, and a love of telling stories and jokes. He will tell you that he healed his own heart with his tremendous “Tooky-Power”, and we believe him.
Since he did not require open-heart surgery like I did, not so many people know my brother as a heart-warrior, and this year we asked his permission to tell his story in the same way we tell mine. He agreed to that, and now my Dad and I get to ride for him at this year’s CHC Courage Classic as members of the Cardiac Climbers team!
We feel blessed that we have the amazingly smart and caring people at The Heart Institute at Children’s Hospital taking care of me and my brother!!
