Story
My nephew Joe’s story and why I’m raising money for Evelina ❤️
Before he was born it was identified that Joe had a very serious problem with his heart.
His mum gave birth to him at St Thomas’ Hospital so that he could be admitted to the Evelina Children’s Hospitalimmediately, and at three days old he underwent the first of his heart operations.
Joe was born with a condition called pulmonary atresia with a ventricular septal defect, this meant the artery taking oxygen from his lung to his heart never opened, and he only had 3 heart chambers rather than 4. At 11 months old Joe had life-saving open heart surgery at the Evelina which repaired his heart and raised his oxygen levels, previously they would dip to a dangerous 56%. Joe is monitored carefully by the Evelina and will need future heart surgery, but thanks to the skill of all involved, 10 plus years on, his original heart repair is still in good working order.
Joe unfortunately doesn’t just have a heart condition; Joe is also partially deaf and has a rare skeletal deformity which presents itself as a form of scoliosis. Joe has had severaloperations, at the Evelina, to help his hearing, and at the age of 10 received a hearing device implant. On receiving the implant, he turned to his mum and said, ‘what’s that noise?’ it took a while to work out it was in fact birds - he had neverheard them before.
Joe is currently waiting for surgery to prevent his spine from curving anymore than it is, and to stop it from compromising his lungs. This surgery, at the Evelina again, is life saving for Joe and will require many more appointments and services provided by the Evelina over the coming years.
In all Joe has had 8 surgeries and countless procedures at the Evelina and will continue to be treated by this wonderful hospital until he reaches adulthood.
As a family, we will be forever thankful to the Evelina Children’s Hospital London for their expertise and care over the past 11 years. Without them we would not have our little dynamite Joe, so please give what you can to this fantastic hospital for them to continue to help Joe and children like him.