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Introducing Heart Warrior, Walker! During his 20-week anatomy scan, Walker’s family learned that his heart was different. Walker’s family met with cardiologists and prepared for a cardiac assessment at birth. Walker was born with VSDs and ASDs, or holes in his heart, and his cardiologist closely monitored him in his early months.
At 3 months old, Walker had his first open-heart surgery to close the holes in his heart. The holes were more extensive than expected, making the surgery much longer. The next day, Walker experienced a cardiac arrest. His medical team then placed him on ECMO and implanted a permanent pacemaker because his heart’s rhythm did not return.
After 8 weeks, Walker was strong enough to go home at 5 months old.
Walker’s medical team closely monitored him in the following years and performed several heart catheterizations. After moving from San Francisco to NY in 2023, he faced multiple respiratory illnesses that led to hospitalizations and heart failure. His tricuspid and mitral valves were leaking, and the team at Boston Children’s Hospital advised his family that another surgery was necessary.
In June 2024, when Walker was 5 years old, his family traveled from New York to Boston Children’s Hospital. He underwent his second open-heart surgery to repair his mitral valve, tricuspid valve, replace his pacemaker, undergo an ablation, and reduce the size of his right atrium. Surgery was extremely successful, and ever so slowly but surely, Walker recovered. Ten weeks after Walker’s family arrived in Boston, he got the blessing from his incredible cardiology team that he could return to NY.
Walker’s family shares, “We joke that though the summer was not what we ever envisioned for Walker, especially at 5 years old, he thrived with all the incredible programming at Boston Children’s. He attended his own unique version of camp last summer and made some very brave, lifelong friends during his time there.”
We are forever grateful to Live4Evan for allowing our family to remain together, steps away from Walker and Boston Children’s throughout surgery and recovery.
Live4Evan: We are so happy we could provide Walker’s family with affordable, temporary housing while he was receiving treatment at Boston Children’s Hospital, and we thank them for sharing Walker’s story!
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