Austin was born with a Critical Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) know as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). He spent 151 days after birth in the hospital, coming home at just shy of 5 months old. At 9 months old he had already gone through three life saving open heart surgeries. His 4th planned surgery was October 2021. Now, he lives a fairly normal life for a six year old. Austin has had feeding tubes, heart caths, all kinds of tests, etc...but without research none of this would be possible. Had he been born a few years earlier he would not have survived. The very first surgery he had was not performed frequently and had only been done for a few years prior to him being born. Austin's heart will never be whole, he will never be cured. His prognosis comes with statistics and the solution is research for better options. In order for research to happen, there must be funding! This is why our family chooses to partner with The Children's Heart Foundation. We hope to provide a better prognosis for babies born with CHD's. We hope to help these children live further into adulthood. We hope that one day families will no longer hear "there is something wrong with your babies heart" or "there is nothing more we can do". 

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. Thank you!