Davis entered life a bit dramatically requiring an emergent C section exit, but nothing in his prenatal scans nor early life tests prepared his family for what was coming. On a hunch the neonatologist requests an ECHO, and they found his heart just didn’t work the same as a typical baby. The aorta and pulmonary arteries being switched. So, at 2 days old he was given the opportunity to fly to Denver from Greeley via LifeFlight. Children’s Hospital became his home for the first 7 weeks of his life. He would have the arterial switch operation and correcting other heart defects they found on further studies and when they were finally able to touch his heart. After his all-day surgery all looked good not needed any interventions after ECMO being removed. The potential complication of his surgery is that his left vocal cord is paralyzed and that is true for him. As a result, he needed a G tube to be able to eat so at 6 weeks old he had a second surgery to allow him to eat outside of the hospital environment. It’s not known what the source of his delays are, but with therapies he is catching up in vision, speech and gross movement. In the almost 4 years since that start, he appears to be a typical preschooler going to school and playing with friends, who just happens to eat differently. He continues to meet with cardiology and several other clinics at Children’s Hospital who all work together to ensure he is experiencing his best life, and his future looks positive and functional with little fear for adult life.
