Celebrating 10 Years!

So many exciting things happening as we are heading into our 10th year for Mended Little Hearts of Evansville. When this chapter was born I had no idea what it would become. My hope was that children who have a congenital heart defect would never feel alone and be able to connect with others just like them.

In celebration of 10 years, my wonderful friend Alisann Shetler Elpers from Captured Studios Photography donated her time and services to make our Mended Little Hearts 10 year anniversary extra special. Follow us on Facebook, and please like and share our kiddos photo’s to recognize one mended little heart at a time! #mlhevv #mlh #rememberourhearts #1in110

The first picture that will kick off this wonderful anniversary celebration is a photo that as a child I dreamt about. A picture that without saying a word demonstrates more bravery and love then imaginable. The strengths pictured here is why Mended Little Hearts of Evansville was formed. Every child in this picture has a story, we appreciate your support over the last 10 years and the many years to come.

-Julie Stucki, Mended Little Hearts Founder

Kendon Michael Horn was born on June 28, 2012 at the Women’s Hospital in Newburgh, Indiana. He was 9 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long. Although Kendon appeared healthy he was born with three congenital heart defects; a Ventricular septal defect (VSD), Atrial septal defect (ASD) and a persistent left superior vena cava (PLSVC).

At just one month old it was clear that Kendon would eventually need heart surgery. After numerous hospitalizations and the inability to thrive, it was clear that Kendon’s heart was failing and surgery was needed to survive. His family quickly reached out to Mended Little Hearts hoping to connect with other families like theirs that had been through a similar experience. Parents of other children born with CHDs like Kendon’s quickly reached out giving hope and support to his family in preparation for the weeks ahead.

Kendon’s little heart was mended on September 27, 2012 a day before he was 3 months old at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. The surgery was a success. The VSD and ASD were repaired. Mended Little Hearts was and is there as a support system to Kendon’s family and other families like theirs, offering hope and raising awareness of little hearts that need mending.

-Jason & Tiffany Horn

Imagine being given a newborn baby and being told not to let it cry, that was our newborn experience. We found out at 22 weeks Easton had a heart defect and that it was TOF a week later.  We have no history of heart defects, no known reason for his defect, and no idea why Easton was born with TOF.  Luckily Easton was a good baby and was born with oxygen in the 90’s.  As he grew, he grew quickly and it was too fast for his little heart, so we had to rush to Riley for an unplanned BT Shunt at two months old.  We knew this would get us to a year with a full repair, and it did.

Last September he had his open heart surgery to repair the defect.  He had a bit of a rough recovery, but we were home after a week and he’s been doing good ever since.  Now we just have to hope his pulmonary valve grows with him.

Most people might believe the battle is over at the repair, but I’m finding this little warriors have to fight every day.  Despite everything, Easton is affectionate, sweet, and meeting his milestones.  He loves to laugh and giggle, he already has a great sense of humor.”

-Dustin & Candace Merritt

In June 2003 I found out I was having a little boy and very shortly after we learned he would need open heart surgery when he was born. Luke was born October 14, 2003 and was quickly rushed away the second he was delivered. Luke was born with Transposition of the Great Arteries (basically the plumbing of his heart was backwards). They gave him medicine to keep him alive in hopes for him to be stable to have surgery. Two days later he had an Arterial Switch operation. Everything went great and he had wonderful results!

In May 2005, they noticed the hole in his heart that they made to keep him alive, those 1st two days, was getting a little larger. So we opted to have it patched. The best decision we could have made! Having that hole patched has taken away most of his previous restrictions! In August 2019 he was able to become SCUBA certified (something he would not of been able to do with the hole still open)!

Luke enjoys golf, tennis, hiking, water & snow skiing, fishing, and SCUBA diving. Luke is also on track to Eagle in Boy Scouts this August. Looking at him, one would never guess he has had open heart. Happy anniversary & thank you Mended Little Hearts for helping us get through the rough times!

-James & Yvonne McCullough

Gracie Lynn’s story started way before she was born. She was desperately wanted for 12 years. She’s named after her sister (Charlotte Gracie-Lynn) who was lost 2 years before her birth to placenta abruption. The shock of hearing your rainbow baby’s heart sounds loud was unbearable. Dr Kumbar was called in to do an echo her second day of life. Then we were told to not worry. It may close on its own.

It didn’t take long to figure out that what they said to not worry about may just be worse than it seems. She was very tiny. Her colds lasted for nearly 2 months at a time. She wore the same clothes for 2-3 years. Her heart was so loud. You could feel it and hear it. Forcing us to never forget that one day we would have to leave her with a team of strangers to fix her heart. Yet we knew how blessed we were and that it could have been worse.

She was mended 2 weeks before her sixth birthday. Her terrible colds were no more. She grew and grew till she jumped on to the growth curve and made her way all the way up to 50 percentile within a few short months of being mended. She’s our amazing mended, rainbow baby, after 10 years of infertility and one placenta abruption. She arrived with a bang, kept us on pins and needles from day one and holds our heart forever.

-Larry & Crystal Ennis

Riley was born with Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) and a Cleft Lip and  Palate. Both diagnosed prior to birth.  The required surgeries and care necessary for Riley’s first year of life proved to be a test of endurance for everyone involved.  The typical Cleft Lip and Palate repair schedule had to take a back seat to his prioritized cardiac health.  Several trips to Doctors in Indianapolis and Cincinnati were required to set the stage for Riley’s surgery schedule.  After a diagnostic heart catheterization, the cardiologist agreed that he could have his first surgery to repair his lip at 5 months.

After a successful heart catheterization and lip surgery, Riley’s cardiologist believed it was time for his open heart surgery at 8 months old.  Dr. Turrentine performed the repair in about 8 hours.  The next several days were shaky at best during his recovery.  It is believed Riley had an allergic reaction to the bypass machine as well as a stiff right ventricle that provided some added challenge.  Riley did slowly improve on his own schedule and he spent 14 nights in ICU and an additional 10 in the heart center before we were sent home.  A checkup a week later at his cardiologist revealed a problematic suture in Riley’s sternum.  A quick day surgery performed by Dr. Turrentine again provided a quick fix though.

After a couple months of recovery from open heart surgery, his cardiologist signed off for his next surgery, a cleft palate repair.  Riley again was a trooper and was in and out of there in 5 short days.

Riley is monitored by his cardiologist and will require a future open heart surgery to replace his pulmonary valve. This valve was removed by Dr. Turrentine as often required for repair of TOF.

Riley has had a lip repair surgery at 4 ½ years old and also had a bone graft to form a gum line just days before turning 9.  At this time he will likely have 1 more surgery as he grows to continue the repair of his Cleft Lip and Palate.

Today Riley is a happy and healthy 9 year old thanks to God and a wonderful team of Doctors and Nurses who have provided for his care and countless prayers.

Mended Little Hearts has been a wonderful group during this unexpected journey, providing support, encouragement, and education to us from our very first meeting.  The meetings and activities planned for the kids and parents provide an environment to share experiences and stories. It is great to see the kids together who have been given this road in life playing with each other knowing they are not alone in their journeys.

-Ryan & Tammy Hobby

Brody was born with Tetralogy of  Fallot. He was delivered at Riley Children’s Hospital and had his first heart surgery there at only 4 days old. They placed a BT shunt to reroute his blood flow in order to provide his lungs and other organs with sufficient oxygen levels. He was heavily monitored and on numerous medications to allow time for him to grow and gain weight before attempting an open heart surgery for a full repair. Each month as he grew, his oxygen levels would decrease. When he was 6 months old it was decided the levels were too low and the full repair was needed. On December 27th, 2011 Brody had open heart surgery to repair his four major heart defects. This surgery lasted 8 hours and many days/nights in the hospital recovering. There were good days and there were bad days. He continued to be monitored monthly then quarterly.

At a normal routine checkup in May of 2013 with his then cardiologist, Dr. Julio Morera, it was found he had an obstruction with the out flow of his right ventricle. It was so severe they would not allow us to leave the office before speaking to Riley Hospital and scheduling an appointment. We were able to be seen right away, where after a heart cath procedure, the surgeons and cardiologist at Riley agreed Brody would have to have an additional open heart surgery to fix the obstruction. They had it scheduled within a week and we found ourselves again preparing for the worst. At this point Brody could talk, walk, eat on his own, etc. All of those factors made this surgery different and all too hard to have to repeat.

Having a CHD child, or any diagnosis of an “unhealthy” child is extremely difficult. Each stage, milestone, or sometimes day you get through is worth celebrating. Brody continues to be monitored at Riley and will need further surgical intervention in the future, but we will continue to live for today and be thankful for how far he has come. However, there will continuously be thoughts of what the next appointment might bring. The anxiety that exist leading up to these appointments is far too hard to explain. The feelings we’ve experienced through our journey will never go away and are something we will always fear. Brody has amazing strength and courage that I will never understand.

Our faith and support we received from family, friends, and through Mended Little Hearts was remarkable. I am extremely thankful for the relationships we’ve made here. MLH has allowed Brody to not be “different”. He has friends just like him and we have parents and friends that know exactly what we’ve been through. I am excited, honored, and blessed to share our 10 year anniversary with these amazing kiddos and their families.

-Matt & Zana

Julie was born on July 13, 1977 at 11:59 p.m.  We laughed because her doctor looked at the clock to make sure he had the time correct.

Julie had a pretty eventful first couple of months; however, her belly button wouldn’t heal so we made a trip to see her doctor and he thought that she might have something wrong with her heart.  He drew us a picture of her heart and put a name to it – Tetraology of Fallot.  Riley Hospital physicians had made a decision that they would start coming to Evansville to see patients on an out-patient basis.  Julie was the first baby to be seen and we were so fortunate to get Dr. Roger Hurtwitz. 

He wanted to see Julie at Riley for testing and when she was 8 months old we made a trip to Riley.  They decided while we were there that they needed to do a Blaylock-Tunssing shunt on her and took her to surgery.  The next day Julie was not doing well at all.  Apparently they banded the shunt too tight and they told us that they needed to take her back to surgery and they told us to call our family in.  It was pretty scary.

Julie had periodic checkups and they set up her repair when she was 18 months old.  She did great.  The doctor told us that we would see her for yearly exams and sent us on our way.

Fast forward to 2005 – Julie gets married in December.  In January there was an article in the Courier and Press that children with Tetralogy were told they after their repair they were good to go, however, they were now finding out that wasn’t true.  I called Julie and she called Dr. Hurtwitz who set up an appointment to see her immediately. This was the first time that we didn’t get to go with Julie – she took her husband and left her parents at home.

After tests he determined that she needed to be seen by Dr. Brown (who did her first surgery).  He scheduled her for surgery in May of 2006.  They did a valve replacement and she did great.  She was in the hospital for a week.  In 2008 she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy – Owen.

She had another valve replacement in 2018 and they did it on an outpatient basis.  She had it one day and went home the next.  Advancements have been made.

-Bud & Becky Heil