Our son Paxton was diagnosed in October 2018 at 34 weeks with narrowing of the aorta. The doctors thought he wouldn’t need surgery until around 4 or 5 years old. Paxton was born October 12, 2018, at 35 weeks due to a placenta abruption. At 2 days old the doctors and nurses realized the narrowing was much worse than the ultrasound showed, he was transported to 2 different hospitals before settling in at Duke. Paxton was diagnosed with pneumonia and wasn’t able to have surgery right away. His lungs needed to improve. On October 25th, 2018 at 2 weeks old our little warrior went into surgery to fix his CHD Coarctation of the Aorta. Two days after surgery our little boy had a huge decline, his stats started dropping, he needed a blood transfusion and had to be put back on a ventilator. But on November 5th, 2018 we got to bring him home. He is now a very active, happy, loving, little 2-year-old boy that we cherish every day. He has 3 older sisters that can’t get enough of him.

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