Welcome to team SUPER JAMES!  This is our second year participating in the Congenital Heart Walk to celebrate our heart warrior, James, and raise funds to support the research to help all of those affected by CHD.  

James’s CHD of Pulmonary Atresia was discovered at my twenty-week anatomy scan. At the time we were completely foreign to the CHD world and didn’t know what the future held for our little man.  We were hopeful that the repair to open his pulmonary artery could but done in the cath lab but that proved dangerous with the other abnormalities of his heart including a moderately hypoplastic right ventricle, a curved PDA, an atreial septal defect, and a tethered tricuspid valve. This was all discovered in cath lab when he was 4 days old which led to his first open heart procedure at 8 days old for a BT shunt.  He was so strong and recovered beautifully. He was allowed to come home before his next big surgery which is usually out of the question.  His surgeon, Dr. Viegas, was able to open his pulmonary valve at the same time the shunt was placed so he was stable enough to leave the hospital for a couple of months before it was time for the Glenn.  The Glenn procedure was more difficult on 6-month-old James but they were able to bring in Dr. Da Silva to work with Dr. Viegas to repair the tricuspid valve at the same time she performed the Glenn procedure.  He had to overcome a paralyzed diaphragm that required surgical repair just a few days after his Glenn surgery.  After that, our Super James took off and showed us how strong he was in his recovery.  Since then James has been impressing us (and his doctors!) every step of the way.  He loves his cardiologist, Dr. Torok, and his cath lab doctor, Dr. Goldstein, and together, at this point, they have been so supportive in letting James be James and letting him show them if he needs any interventions in the future. We walk for Super James