Bailey's Condition

The sign above was one of the signs we carried during the heart walk last year, it is everything that is wrong with Bailey's heart.

This is for those who do not know about Bailey's condition, taken from an e-mail from his former Cardiologist:

Bailey is a little tough in trying to find someone with lots of experience. His diagnosis is Heterotaxy, Common Atrium, Common Atrioventricular Valve, Single Right Ventricle, D-malposition (transposition) of the Great Arteries, pulmonary and subpulmonary stenosis, and right aortic arch. This places him in a pretty rare category. There was a recent (2006) paper from Mayoo Clinic looking at their total experience from 1975 to 2004 and only came up with 142 patients with heterotaxy in that time period. Of those, only 26 had a true single ventricle like Bailey, but I can't tell if any of those were the same as Bailey. The paper was looking at long term outcome of Fontan procedures in heterotaxy patients and really came to the conclusion that there has been improvement in survival in this group of patients, but mortality and morbidity remain substantial. And " Discovery of innovative treatment methods is essential. Furthermore, meticulous long-term medical management at centers specializing in the care of congenital heart disease is mandatory."

So future research is a very important component of Bailey's future.  It is a very important component for the futures of my parents who suffer from heart disease as well.  This walk provides hope for families like ours.  That is why we continue doing the walk, year after year.