From being diagnosed with CHD at just 3 days old to overcoming multiple heart surgeries, Abraham is a true heart warrior!
As well as funding our life-saving Heart Unit where he was treated, Children’s Heart Surgery Fund have played a crucial role in supporting Abraham and his family on his journey so far.
Abraham’s mum, Katherine, said:
Abraham was diagnosed with CHD when he was three days old. They found he had multiple heart defects, and we were rushed across to Leeds from Jessops Wing in Sheffield the following day.
Due to Abraham being born prematurely, he was too small for surgery, so we were cared for on neonates for three weeks until he had his first open heart surgery in “the hybrid” theatre.
For the first 12 weeks of his life, we thought he was going down the single ventricle route of surgery but by some miracle on the morning of his second open heart surgery his surgeon, Mr Jaber, came and told us he thought he can do a full heart repair.
A long 10 hours later, Abraham was out of surgery. Mr Jaber had worked his magic and he had repaired our boy’s heart.
However, his recovery wasn’t smooth to start with and one week later he had a pacemaker fitted as he was still in ‘heart block’ following his repair.
Heart block is a condition where the heart beats more slowly or with an abnormal rhythm. It’s caused by a problem with the electrical pulses that control how your heart beats.
A pacemaker is a small electrical device that’s implanted in the chest or abdomen. It’s used to treat some abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) and sends electrical pulses to the heart to keep it beating regularly.
After this, Abraham flourished, and he grew stronger and stronger.
As we left hospital the aim was to get Abraham to his first birthday before we discussed any further surgery. Abraham way exceeded this and on the 5th January 2024 he had his third open heart surgery, aged 4 years 7 months old.
In this surgery he had a resection of his aortic valve membrane and his pacemaker replaced (he is pacing himself and was pre-surgery too).
On writing this, he is now 20 days post-surgery and doing amazingly!
Children’s Heart Surgery Fund have helped us so much throughout our journey as a family, navigating the new world of CHD.
Without their support we wouldn’t have been able to stay close to Abraham during his time in hospital. His first admission was for 16 weeks. We were helped financially during our first admission too, which was a great help as living in hospital isn’t cheap.
Abraham also loves his Katie Bears and certificates!
CHSF gives us opportunities to meet other heart mums and dads. We enjoy meeting and talking to other parents who share the same experiences as us. As Abraham gets older, I believe he will benefit from meeting other children who have gone through what he has too.
On our latest admission it was lovely to meet Family & Youth Support Worker, Lucy!
Because of you: KardiaMobiles
KardiaMobiles are transportable and easy to use devices and are effectively personal ECG monitors, which work with smartphones. They monitor heart rhythms amongst patients who have experienced symptoms, either providing peace of mind or vital data to enable clinicians...
Cardiac SALT Feedback #BecauseOfYou
Ward 51 Cardiac Speech and Language Therapist Jess Symonds was appointed last year, thanks to your donations. Speech And Language Therapy (SALT) has the power to transform feeding, swallowing and communication outcomes and improve a child’s quality of life. Jess sent...
Support for families: February 2025
CHSF appreciates that kind gestures - no matter how small - can make the biggest difference to our families. In February 2025, our Family Support team continue to focus on the wellbeing of heart families thanks to your donations, alongside our financial and practical...