Thank you for visiting our team page! Every 15 minutes, a baby in this country is born with a congenital heart defect, making CHDs America's most common birth defect. The Congenital Heart Walk is dedicated to raising funds to support The Children's Heart Foundation's mission: to advance the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of CHDs by funding the most promising research.

Will you join us? By supporting our team or joining us in our walk, you're supporting research that will help save and improve the lives of babies born, and children and adults living, with CHDs. 

We walk for Wyatt, who was born 5 weeks early with congenital heart disease. He has aortic valve stenosis due to a bicuspid valve. Where most people are born with 3 valves, he was born with two of his fused together. This leads to issues with blood flow, making the left ventricle work harder to pump the blood through, and can eventually lead to heart failure. 

Wyatt was transferred via ambulance from the hospital he was born in to a children's hospital over an hour away at just 6 days old. At 9 days old, he underwent a balloon valvuloplasty to widen the opening in his valve, allowing blood to flow through a little better.

He now also has post stenotic dilation, which is a bulge that can occur after a procedure like his, and if left untreated, can eventually rupture. 

We aren't sure which issue he will need major surgery for first, but we are thankful that he is being closely monitored and can lead a pretty normal life in the meantime. The older he gets with his current heart and valves, the better the long term outcome. 

Decades ago, his condition may not have been discovered and he may not have had the life saving procedure he had when he was 9 days old. Thanks to continuous awareness efforts and fundraising through causes like this, kids like Wyatt will have increasingly better odds of living long, healthy lives.