Two days after Thomas was born his pediatrician heard a heart murmur. She ordered an echocardiogram that showed that Thomas had pretty major heart defects. Normally these defects are found via ultrasound during the pregnancy but his was not. He has dextracardia (heart rotated to the right), double outlet right ventricle (both his major vessels his pulmonary and aorta are coming out of the right side of his heart), a vsd (a big hole in between his heart ventricles), pulmonary stenosis, pulmonary hypertension, and mitral valve inlet left ventricle. He has since had a total of 6 open heart surgeries and will need more throughout his life when he grows out of his heart shunts. 

We also found out that he has a rare genetic syndrome called Cri Du Chat (or 5P-) which is what caused his heart defects. Cri Du Chat is caused by a part of the 5th chromosome missing and there is no cause or cure. Only 1 in 50,000 babies have it  and only 10% of those babies have heart defects. It is a spectrum disorder meaning there is a wide degree of severity and every child is a little different. All have some level of developmental delay and early intervention and therapy is the best thing to help them. 

Thomas started going to therapy at The Bell Center when he was about 5 months old and has really grown up there. They have helped both of us learn and many of the milestones he has met has been with their help. Thomas is a warrior and shows his strength every day but I have no clue where we would be without this amazing organization. We are so thankful for Ms. Betty Bell for starting this organization years ago for kids like Thomas and all the other amazing tiny superheroes!!

The Bell Center is dedicated to maximizing the potential of children from birth to three years of age who are at risk for developmental delay.The staff of The Bell Center begins the work of maximizing a childs potential as soon as the child is evaluated. This evaluation assesses a childs strengths and weaknesses across five developmental domains: gross motor, fine motor, expressive and receptive language, cognition and emotional/social. From this assessment, each member of the childs transdisciplinary team develops goals in each area specific to that child.The Bell Center follows a transdisciplinary approach to providing early intervention services. This allows all areas of the childs development to be targeted every time they are at The Bell Center. Through this frequent targeting of developmental goals comes success as goals are achieved. As one goal is mastered, the next appropriate goal is is targeted, ensuring that the child is always striving to maximize their potential.