Stephanie Gannaway
Stephanie Gannaway is Heart Mom to son Bodie, now two, who was born with a congenital heart defect called tetralogy of Fallot. He had open-heart surgery to repair the defect at six months old. The initial repair was not successful and he spent 100 days in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit after the initial repair with total systemic failure (his organs shut down). At the end of those 100 days, he survived a catherization procedure, 16 surgeries, extra corporeal membrane oxygenation or ECMO, five cardiac arrests, a foot amputation and an anoxic brain injury from lack of oxygen during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Recovery from an anoxic brain injury is uncertain. Bodie’s life is about therapies now. He has 12 therapy sessions per week including hyperbaric oxygen, which is experimental for brain injuries. There is not much information regarding pediatric anoxic injuries related to congenital heart defects, and we have chartered new territory the last two years on this subject.
