On September 29, 2015, we learned that the baby boy we were expecting would be born with several serious congenital heart defects. He was diagnosed prenatally with a double outlet right ventricle with d-transposition of the great arteries, a hypoplastic left ventricle with mitral atresia, and pulmonic stenosis, and we were told that he would need at least two or three surgeries in his first few years of life to survive. At the time, our primary team of providers did not have a surgeon who could perform the complicated surgeries that he would need immediately after birth, so we chose to travel 6 hours away, to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, TX, for delivery and care afterward. Charlie was born on February 8, 2016, and while he was stable initially, his condition declined over the next week, and he had his first heart surgery to place a BT shunt when he was only 8 days old. After several weeks in the hospital and another couple of weeks in Houston, we finally returned home to New Orleans, only to be flown back to Houston three days later for an urgent procedure in the cath lab. We are so thankful to Cash for Kids for sponsoring us and helping our family throughout this journey, both financially as our out-of-town living and medical expenses added up, and emotionally in giving us hope for our future. Charlie had a second procedure in the cath lab in July, 2016, and he had his second heart surgery, the Glenn procedure, at Ochsner in August, 2016, and he is now happy and thriving! -Allison, Jake, Elizabeth, and Charlie McCoy
