Tim suffers from a rare heart condition in which the lower half of his heart operates in reverse. Instead of the stronger half of his heart pumping blood to his body, it is serving his lungs. And the weaker half is working in overdrive to pump blood to his body. Tim also was born with other heart defects. A hole in his heart was repaired when he was just 5 months old. During that same surgery, a p
acemaker was installed to remedy an irregular heartbeat. Over the next 2 years, Tim had 3 surgeries to prepare him for the complicated "Double Switch" procedure. This complicated surgery disconnects major blood vessels from the heart chambers they are currently attached to and reconnects them to the correct chambers. Tim underwent this procedure in June, 2010. While the surgery successfully reconfigured the vessels, his heart did not recover fully and he is now in heart failure. Despite his diagnosis, Tim lives a very full and relatively normal life for a 5 year old boy. We keep in close contact with his cardiology team, and he is on several medications daily. He is now in need of a heart transplant, but we have always focused on making the most of the day to day.
