Friday, November 25, 2016

Here are a couple videos of Hannah having fun signing Taylor Swift. Hannah’s Christmas wish is to meet Taylor Swift, if not face-to-face then to have a video chat with her on Skype.

https://youtu.be/23DUGMTpoxs

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Hannah’s Open Heart Surgery

Season’s Greetings,

Our eight year old daughter Hannah (Sweet Pea) was recently diagnosed with Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) a congenital heart defect. It turns out that the hole in Hannah’s heart is too large for her to be a candidate for the non-surgical catheter-based procedure and so she must have open heart surgery to repair a whole in her heart. Hannah is a beautiful little girl (both inside and out). She is a straight-A student, and she is one of the most caring and selfless children in the world. She loves to sing, dance, and practice gymnastics. She enjoys reading and watching (mostly Barbie and princesses themed) movies, and is a HUGE fan of Taylor Swift. Hannah has a younger sister, two older brothers and a mother and father who all love her very much. The thought of our precious little girl having to have open heart surgery is terrifying for us. This invasive surgery requires that the cardiovascular surgeon make an incision into Hannah's chest, cuts through all or part of her sternum (chest bone) and open her chest cavity to expose her heart. Once her heart is visible, Hannah will be connected to a heart-lung bypass machine (thus stopping her heart), so that the surgeon can operate.

As our family prepares for Hannah’s open heart surgery we are also experiencing an extreme financial hardship and struggle through life without a vehicle. The transmission went out in our can over a year ago and we’ve been without an automobile every sense. This might not sound like a big deal to most people. However without any source of public transportation it not only makes maintaining employment a challenge, but it also makes day to day life very difficult as well. We are forced to walk with the children everywhere that we need to go (the grocery store, doctor’s appointments, etc.). Plus, as the cold weather sets in it triggers Hannah’s asthma condition and while recovering from open heart surgery this makes her health and safety is a real concern.

We are reaching out to the public for help, because we simply do not know where else to turn. We’ve contacted every organization, foundation and church that we could find. However there does not seem to be any funding for our particular situation. We’ve even tried a Go-Fund-Me page but unfortunately our network of friend and family is very small so this too was unsuccessful.    Hannah’s Christmas wish is to meet or talk to Taylor Swift. This is a very sad and scary time in Hannah’s life (facing open heart surgery) and as expected she if feeling somewhat overwhelmed with everything. So her family is trying desperately to reach out to Taylor Swift and ask her to have a video Skype call with Hannah or to make Hannah a personalized video dedicating one of her songs to Hannah. This would help Hannah’s moral so much and would help give her strength that she need to make it through this tough time in her life and empower her to make a speedy recovery.

Our family also wants to raise awareness to congenital heart defects, in particular Atrial Septal Defect. Hannah was originally diagnosed with having a small heart murmur. We were told repeatedly that it was nothing to be concerned about and that it would most likely heal itself. This was not the case, the hole is Hannah’s heart is quite large and if it is not repaired while she is young it will cause permanent and irreversible heart damage. Hannah’s new pediatrician heard her heart murmur and ordered an ultrasound. The ultrasound came back identifying Hannah’s Atrial Septal Defect. So we are encouraging all parents who have children with heart murmurs to get an ultrasound to make sure that the murmur is not sign of something more serious.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my daughter’s upcoming open heart surgery and our family’s situation. To learn more about Hannah and her family please visit the following links:
Hannah’s blog http://www.hannahsopenheartsurgery.blogspot.com/
Hannah’s Go Fund Me page: https://www.gofundme.com/hannahs-open-heart-surgery
Hannah’s Facebook Care Page https://www.facebook.com/Sweet-Peas-Care-Page-719081884935170/

Sincerely,

Larry Spain