When April 11th, 2018 came along, we packed up the van, kissed our two girls goodbye and ensured them that the next time we talked they would be big sisters to their new baby brother Maverick. We set out to Mount Sinai where we were expecting to deliver Maverick at 2 p.m.
It wasn’t till almost 10:00 p.m. when Amanda was finally taken in. Maverick was born at 10:22 p.m., weighing 8lb 6oz. What came next was not what we were expecting. Somehow, Maverick was stable. We couldn’t believe it, this meant we got to spend a few minutes with him before he would be taken over by the SickKids transportation team.
These few minutes meant the world to us. I was lucky enough to be able to go see him at SickKids that night and spend time with him after he was checked in and the doctors had a chance to examine him. Unfortunately, Amanda couldn’t come and spend that time with him, but the determination from her the very next day to be able to walk so she could go see him is unmatched. There was nothing in this world that was going to stop her from seeing her baby.
Over the next several days, we met with doctors, nurses, and his entire cardiology team. They said Maverick was doing better than expected and that emergency surgery would not be required at this time. See, Maverick was a fighter, and he was determined to get healthy. His heart continued to grow and continued to baffle the doctors to the point where they just wanted to let him grow. This was great news!
As each day passed, his odds got better that he would only require a bi-ventricle repair to fix the following issues with his heart:
· Severe coarctation of the aorta with transverse and isthmal Hypoplasia.
· Mildly thickened and hypoplastic aortic valve, possible bicuspid aortic valve.
· Hypoplastic ascending aorta
· Mild to moderate Hypoplastic left ventricle
· Single left aided SVC draining to right atrium via a dilated coronary sinus
· Probably perimembranous VSD
· Petent forame. Ovale with mainly left to right shunting
There was nothing to call his condition. It was just a bunch of different conditions all attacking him at once. But Maverick was fighting—fighting hard.