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In Your Prime January 09

Help Yourself

home : • news : news	July 31, 2010

4/12/2009 6:48:00 PM

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Heartfelt
Gift of heart means local boy lives
By RACHEL MORGAN

Staff Writer

Ian Sanchez is only 3 years old, but already he has endured more than most adults.

When he was 2 months old, Ian was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a serious disease in

which the heart muscles become inflamed and don't work as well as they should.

His parents, Harold and Stacey Sanchez, were told he would probably not survive unless he

received a heart transplant.

Ian was perfectly healthy when he was born, Stacey said. Even on his 2-month checkup in April

2006, "he was completely fine," she said. "That next Sunday, he stopped eating, his diapers

were dry."

Stacey and Harold took him to Children's Hospital in Columbus, where the nurses realized

something was seriously wrong.

"As soon as we took him and the nurses heard how he was breathing, they rushed him to

trauma," Stacey said.

After several heart x-rays, the doctors saw that Ian's heart was three times the size it should

be. He was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, probably caused a virus that attacked his heart,

causing it to not pump properly.

Ian was immediately moved to the Intensive Care Unit.

"Very rarely had they seen anyone (with this condition) live without a heart transplant," she said.

"I was angry. Here you have all your dreams and desires for your child and all that was being

ripped away from us."

The Sanchez's were faced with a parent's worst nightmare - watching their baby boy struggle

for his life, hoping for a heart transplant, yet knowing that another baby would have to die so

that theirs might live.

At first, Stacey said, they didn't even pray for a heart transplant for Ian, because the thought of

hoping for another baby's death seemed wrong.

"I asked people not to pray for a heart," Stacey said. "I don't want to pray for someone else to

die. That was the hardest part - you want your child to live but you know that someone else will

have to suffer losing a child for that to happen."

Finally, the Sanchez's came to the realization that Ian desperately needed a new heart.

"We would pray so hard that he would get better," Stacey said. "I was so surprised - I had faith,

I could move a couple of mountains. Finally, we had to face the fact that he needed a heart

transplant."

Five days after Ian was admitted to the hospital, on April 21, 2006, he was moved to the top of

the transplant list.

In the early morning hours of April 27, they received the call they were waiting for, the call that

would save Ian's life.

"I got a call at 4 a.m. from the doctor," Stacey said. "He said, 'Today's our day.'"

Ian's surgery was a success.

"He came out of surgery without a breathing tube, which was rare," Stacey said.

But Ian wasn't out of the woods yet. Since his original heart was so enlarged when the new

heart was transplanted, there was a lot of space left around it. This space filled with fluid after

the transplant.

Ian had to have another surgery. But he came out fighting - again.

"Even after the second surgery, he came out without a breathing tube, breathing on his own,"

Stacey said. "We did get our miracle, it was just a little different than we thought."

And Ian kept fighting. Less than two weeks after his transplant, he was home from the hospital.

"It's not usually like that," Stacey said. "We had doctors from the ICU tell us, 'We know you were

praying for a miracle - you got your miracle.' Nurses told us there was no way he could have

recovered that quickly without Divine Intervention. That's is the reason they want to share Ian's

story."

Previous to Ian's transplantation, Stacey wasn't sure how she felt about being an organ donor

herself.

"I hadn't thought about if I wanted to donate my organs," she said. But now, watching her son,

who would not be alive had it not been for the generosity of others, Stacey has no qualms

about being a donor.

Now, Ian appears like any other, high-energy 3-year old. He plays in his sunny backyard with

his three sisters - Karina, Alanna and Sophia - who swing on the swingset while Ian drives his

John Deere Power Wheels, a donated gift from the Sanchez's church, Fayette Bible Church,

where Harold is the assistant pastor.

"That's all he does, all day, is drive his John Deere truck around," Stacey said. "You'd never

know he's different than any other 3-year-old. He's probably a little spoiled too, but we're just

so thankful."

Ian will have to take anti-rejection medication for the rest of his life. He undergoes regular

blood tests and biopsies and is still a little wary of strangers - until he realizes they aren't

doctors and won't be prodding him or poking him with needles.

But Stacey is nothing but grateful to those doctors who saved her son's life. She credits Ian's

cardiologist, Doctor Timothy Hoffman, as a main source of support for the family through the

whole ordeal.

"He held our hands through the whole thing," she said.

She also is eternally grateful to Ian's pediatrician, Doctor Lenora Fitton, who told Stacey and

Harold to take Ian straight to the hospital when he first became sick, a move that probably

saved his life.

Ian's immune system is weaker than other children's' too, which is why Stacey, a registered

teacher, homeschools their oldest, Karina, to cut down on the amount of germs that enter the

home.

Doctors say Ian may even have to get another heart transplant, probably around eight to 14

years old.

"But we pray that he'll be able to live with the heart he has now until he's 100," Stacey said.

The Sanchez's wrote a note to Ian's donor's family after his transplant, but did not hear

anything back.

Stacey, who came so close to losing a child of her own, seems to understand.

"Every night, I put my hand on Ian's heart, knowing that it's the heart of another child," she

said, wiping away a tear. "And I feel a connection to a mother I don't even know."

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