When Jonah was born in September, 2002 they told us he had Aortic Stenosis which is a deformed aortic valve. Instead of three flaps opening and closing he had two so the blood flow was constricted. They sent him to All Children's the day he was born. At 1 week of age they did a cath and balloon to try to open the valve up more. The valve was ripped during the surgery so from then on it leaked. He has been on blood pressure medicine since then.

We knew that he would have to get the Ross procedure done, it was just a matter of getting him as big as possible. The Ross procedure is when they take out his bad aortic valve and replace it with his own pulmonary valve. They then put a cadaver valve in the pulmonary position. So eventually he will have to have the pulmonary valve replaced as he outgrows it. 

In Oct. 2004 they thought it was time for the open heart surgery but when they did a cath the pressure was not as bad as they thought so they didn't do it. Then in Jan. 2007 they decided not to wait any longer because his left ventricle was enlarging so Jonah had his surgery on April 11, 2007. Unfortunately his heart conduction never came back after the surgery. We stayed in CVICU waiting and praying it would return. He had to stay in ICU because he had a temporary pacemaker. It didn't come back so on April 23, 2007 they put a permanent pacemaker in.

We are just grateful he is alive and slowly getting back to his old self. We thank God for every day we get with Jonah.