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Joshua's Story:
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Joshua was born 12 years ago in August of 1992. When he was born he appeared to be a perfectly healthy baby. We spent the day calling friends and family and sharing the news of our first-born son. When Josh was just 24 hours old, he was in the nursery for his check up and procedures. It seemed to be taking forever for Josh to be returned to us. Finally, the pediatrician came to see us and told us the devastating news. Josh had turned blue and he had some type of heart defect. At that point they were unsure exactly what he had, but knew it to be serious. Our elation turned to fear as we made decisions regarding his care. A transport team was called in from a larger hospital in Toledo and while we waited Josh was baptized in the hospital nursery. We followed the transport team to Toledo and once there we learned that Josh had a condition known as Tricuspid Atresia. In simple terms, Josh does not have a tricuspid valve and because it was not there during his development Josh also has an atrophied heart chamber. We were devastated and there were times when we were not sure if we were capable of dealing with the long road ahead. However, that night we made two significant decisions, both equally important. First we decided that we needed to have Josh transported to a hospital closer to home. Second, we knew that we had to be strong for Josh. Josh needed both of his parents to be positive and strong. We knew then that we would do everything possible to help Josh live a healthy and normal life. That night we started creating a list of all the positive things surrounding our situation. I have to admit that it was not easy the first night. We focused a lot on how strong we could be, how much we loved each other and Josh. We added to our list each day and read the full list each night before we went to bed. Our list, which we still have today, includes things such as a Cardiologist that we trust and respect, tubes taken off, medicines stopped to finally the greatest one of all, Josh was coming home.
Josh was careflighted to Dayton Children’s Hospital when he was three days old. Josh has had three heart surgeries in the first three years of his life. His first surgery was at 3 months, the second at 11 months and his last was when he was 3. His first year of life was probably the most difficult. On top of the surgeries, he was hospitalized several times for pneumonia and other respiratory infections. Most people who do not know Josh’s history would not realize that he has such a serious heart defect. He spends most of his days riding his bike, playing ball and hanging out with his friends. He sees the cardiologist every six months and continues to get good check ups. He takes blood thinners and blood pressure medicine each day. To Josh his condition seems like normal life. When he was younger, he once asked when his brother Shane was going to have his heart operated on and get his scar.
We are not sure of what the future will hold for Josh. Our focus is on each day to make it positive and as normal as possible. We are hopeful with continued research and developments in medicine that Josh’s future will be even brighter. In all of our visits to the hospitals, we have seen other with situations far more serious than ours, so even with all we have been through, we still feel fortunate.
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