Meet Ethan

“Ethan was born via scheduled C-section on Monday, march 14, 2011 at 7:34 am at the women’s center at Carlisle regional medical center in Carlisle. Ethan was like any typical new born; he ate, slept and cried. 2 days later our pediatrician (Dr. Lynn Hoffman from Carlisle pediatrics) heard two hearts murmurs while conducting a routine examination on Ethan. As a result, Dr. Lynn explained to my wife Liz that Ethan would undergo some testing, an eco-cardiogram, to rule out any problems. At that point, we were really not concerned or worried. Ethan is our second son to be born, so we felt at ease and confident that Dr. Lynn was just being thorough and cautions as usual. We liked that and felt good knowing that Dr. Lynn just wanted to do some testing to rule out any heart issues. As a result, we never bothered raising the alarm so-to-speak, much less informing our families of Ethan’s heart murmurs or eco-cardiogram. At about 3:30 in the afternoon, the phone rang and we got the call that we thought we would never receive. Dr. Lynn informed us that Ethan was born with a life-threating heart condition and the nursing staff was preparing to transfer Ethan to PENN State Hershey medical center. We were in shock, and could not believe that something was wrong with our baby’s heart! At two days old, our baby boy, who we thought was born healthy, was in fact in danger of losing his life! Besides receiving this news, calling our families to let them know that Ethan’s life was as-risk was one of the worst, gut wrenching things we have ever had to do in our lives. Once we had all arrived and Ethan was settled into the NICU, we met DR. Brian Clark & Beth Adams from the children’s hearth group, along with Warren Smith, our case worker at Hershey. All three of these people treated us like royalty; they did not drop a lot of complicated medical terms on us, they patiently and painstakingly explained what was going on, and the course of action they were going to take for Ethan. During our conversations with Dr. Clark & Beth, we learned that Ethan was born with a congenital heart defect known as transposition of the great arteries (TGA): Ethan was not getting enough oxygen to his blood because his aorta and his pulmonary artery had grown parallel to each other, meaning they were “transposed” or their positions were reversed. The doctor’s also had to act fast with Ethan because 2 of his 3 holes he was born with had already closed, and the third one was on its way to closing. We found out that Ethan was scheduled for open heart surgery on Friday, March 18, 2011. Ethan had successful surgery, and we were released from the hospital 6 days later. As of now, Ethan does not require any additional surgeries. He has a minor leaky aortic valve that will continue to be monitored throughout his life and he will continue to see his pediatric cardiologist every six months. Ethan will never be able to participate in any sports dealing with physical contact, but that’s ok, because he will be too busy hitting the books and studying to become a heart surgeon! Can we say scholarship!?!”