Message from Andy & Dyan,
In 1998 our second son was born. We learned shortly after his birth that he was born with a Congential Heart Defect. Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He was born without his left ventricle. ( Without intervention, this condition is fatal within the first few weeks of life. Even with intervention, the future is uncertain. Children with this condtion are never "cured".) Jason would go through what would be 3 stages of open heart surgeries. When we came home from CHW after our first 3 week stay, we went looking for a support group. Looking for families that had experienced what we had and we were going to have to experience in the future. Unfortunately, that experience was not a positive one. With support from our son's doctors, and family and friends, Left Hearts was born on 14 Feb. 2000. In the eight years since then, many things have happened in our group. We are now over 300 families STRONG!!! We welcome any family with a congenital heart defect and any that are going through a medical struggle with thier child.. We know what a difficult road this is to travel, and want to help in any way we can. We are an emotional support group, so we do not give out any medical advice. We share our experiences and are there for any family that needs a support system. We did not want other families to have the same unfortunate experience that we had when looking for support. Reaching out to other families is what Left Hearts is about. We want other families to know: YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!
