John Walter Anderson was born in September 2017 with Congenital Heart Disease. His parents were told of a heart abnormality at the 18-week anatomy scan while his mother was pregnant with him.

Later after some more tests with Sacred Heart’s Center for Congenital Heart Disease, his official diagnosis was TOF/PA with MAPCAs (Tetralogy of Fallot with Pulmonary Atresia and Major Aorto-Pulmonary Collateral Arteries). John’s parents were told that after John was born he was going to need multiple surgeries over his lifetime and that at least one surgical intervention would need to be performed at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital because of their specialty with the specific diagnosis.

After he was born, John had to stay about one week in the NICU. Shortly after being released to come home, he started to show symptoms of his heart condition. He was starting to have more of a bluish look to him, correlating with low oxygen saturation levels as well as started to encounter feeding difficulties. While working with the cardiologists and pediatric nephrology teams, John started using a nasal gastronomy (NG) tube for feeding; that later led to surgery for a gastronomy tube. After Sacred Heart and Lucille Packard’s teams worked together, they decided to have his first open-heart surgery at Sacred Heart Hospital at one-month-old. He healed well and the intervention was able to help him grow big and strong for his next surgery at Lucille Packard at 7 months old. After 8 hours on bypass, in total a 15-hour surgery, and 3 weeks of recovery, John was like a new baby. He had so much more energy and was growing so much more adequately.

John in conjunction with surgical intervention has been able to be in all sorts of physical, speech, feeding, and occupational therapies. All of this coordination of interventions has John meeting and surpassing milestones just like any other kid. He would not be where he is today without all the wonderful cardiologists, therapists, and other specialists that have worked with him thus far.

Looking forward, John is going to have to continue to have surgical interventions as he grows, and that’s okay because he is in good hands. John’s parents continue to help John grow up as a “normal” child as much as possible and to enjoy every day of life to its fullest. He’s too young to fully understand how his heart makes him so special, but through all the support of everyone around him, he will be taken care of well.