Hi! I'm Cam. I am thirteen years old. I was born with a Congenital Heart Defect called Pulmonary Atresia. Pulmonary Atresia is when your Pulmonary Valve is closed off or completely gone. In my case, it never formed, so there was no way for blood to get from my heart into my pulmonary artery. I have had four open heart surgeries. The most recent one was in November 2008.

When I was born, the doctors in the hospital I was born at didn't know a lot about heart defects and told my parents I would probably have to have a heart transplant. I was transferred the night I was born to All Children's Hospital. There, my parents learned that my condition could be treated with surgery, and that I would not need a heart transplant. They were told that if I had been born eight years earlier, there would have been little the hospital could have done to save me.

My first open heart surgery was when I was three days old. They went in and put a hole in my heart where my valve should have been so blood could go through my pulmonary artery from my heart. Because I had no pulmonary valve, my ventricle didn't form right before I was born, so the surgeon also did some work to make my ventricle work better. My second surgery was when I was five days old. In this surgery they put in a shunt to relieve the pressure in my heart, because my heart wasn't strong enough yet to handle the pressure on its own. My next surgery was when I was six months old. This time they went in and took the shunt out, and closed a hole between my atriums. Like I said, my most recent surgery was in November 2008. This time was a little different because I actually knew what was going on. I had just turned thirteen a day before my fourth surgery. This time they put in a fake pulmonary valve made of teflon and gortex.

Before my most recent surgery, we found a group called Mended Little Hearts. I knew that I was going to have to have the surgery soon, and I was scared and felt like I was the only kid in the world having to go through what I was going through. Seeing all the other kids there, and talking to someone older than me who had the same surgery as me at around the same age made me feel a whole lot better.

Having a heart defect has affected my life tremendously. For example, because of my condition, I am not allowed to play contact sports (hockey, football, etc.) I get tired a lot faster than my friends and can't always do all the things they do. I have spent many days in the cardiologist's office and in the hospital getting tests to keep track of how my heart is doing. I can't even remember how many procedures and tests I have had--but I have had a lot of echocardiograms, EKG's, holter monitors, chest x-rays, MRI's, lung perfusion scans, stress tests, and cardiac catheterizations.

Having a heart defect has also affected my life in good ways. I have been able to meet some great nurses, doctors and surgeons, who are really good at what they do and who I know care about me. My mom says it has also helped us to really appreciate and be grateful for every day we are alive in a way that we wouldn't have before. Because of my experiences, I am now able to tell other people about Congenital Heart Defects. I am still able to play baseball and some other sports like golf, play with my friends and go to school where I am an honors student. I want parents of new babies with CHD's to know that their kids can grow up and still have good lives. I also want to talk to people about CHD's so that more people know about them, and more money can be raised to help research better ways to fix them.