So, she kept going to her prenatal appointments and her doctor told her that she needed to deliver at a hospital that could care for the baby if he had any chance of living after he was born. When she was 38 weeks gestation, she bought a greyhound bus ticket and traveled five hours to UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital where they have a Congenital Heart ICU and a world- renowned transplant surgeon for infants, Dr. Mark S Bleiweis. She delivered 2 days later, and he weighed 6 lbs. 12 ounces and was whisked off to the special ICU. By the time Samuel was 2 weeks old, he had his second open heart surgery, and he was placed on a Berlin Heart, an artificial heart that beat outside of his body to circulate his blood. Berlin hearts are prone to forming tiny clots in the pumping membrane area of the device. Combine this with his genetic predisposition to forming clots, you get a lethal risk for ischemic strokes. This is exactly what happened to Samuel. continued on page 50... “She already had two boys ages four and five at home, and she was not married. Her boyfriend told her to get an abortion, but she was too poor to afford one.” Shawn M. Zierke
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