Intro.

This blog is for friends and family to keep up with us as Samuel heads to and through his open heart surgery on May 1.

For those that come across this page, Samuel is my 15 year old son with Down Syndrome. He was born with a congenital heart defect known as Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV) with a notable Ventral Septal Defect (VSD) and a small mitral valve. The DORV was "repaired" using a dacron patch across the VSD via open heart surgery on October 11, 1993 when Samuel was about 7 months old.

About 5 years ago, he was diagnosed with a muscle bundle in his right ventricle. The clinical diagnosis for this is Double Chambered Right Ventricle (DCRV).

As this has been monitored, Samuel's pediatrician / cardiologist has finally determined that he must now have surgery to repair this defect. He had been putting this off as long as possible in the hopes that this could be done in a non-invasive manner. Alas, this muscle growth out-paced technology, so this procedure will be open heart.

With that, I'm planning on being as raw as possible. I plan to share pictures right from the hospital and as much data as I can put up here, in as timely a manner as possible so that folks that care can follow the process.