Tyson Hugh Hooper

Tyson Hugh Hooper
Our son, Tyson Hugh Hooper, was born with coarctation of the aorta, hypoplastic arch, and a transitional avsd. His first open heart surgery reconstructed his aorta and was on day 9 of life. His second open heart repair was not anticipated to be needed until two or three years of age. Ty had other plans. We spent the vast majority of his first 3 months of life at Vanderbilt as he went into heart failure and was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. As a result, the medical team concluded that he needed the repair much sooner than usually recommended, and at just shy of 3 months old Ty underwent his second life saving open heart surgery. God has already worked so many miracles in Ty's life and the life of our family and we know he is using our story. Because of this, we are grateful for Ty's special heart and feel beyond blessed that God chose us to travel this road. We ask for prayers as Ty continues to heal. We are praying for a full recovery and life without restrictions for Ty. We are praying for God to use our family and Ty for His glory.

Thank you to each and every person who supports us through prayer, giving, or just by loving on our family! We are humbled and blessed by all of the ways the Lord is providing for us and know that he is using Ty and his story to do great things!

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Our sweet baby boy...






We are confident in God's plan for out little guy and know that God has big plans.  We feel that God has already worked through him and in the picture above, Ty is taking his first step in contributing to the greater good.  Chris and I were both confident that if we were asked to participate in research we would.  Ty will be a part of four separate research studies to hopefully help babies like him the future.  Above he is undergoing his base line test for the first study that is already progressing more rapidly than expected.  They are studying infant's inflammatory response and blood flow after open heart surgery. For this study they put a probe on his wrist with medication that feels a little tingly for a few moments.  The probe measures blood flow and inflammation in very top layer of skin.  They will do the test again after surgery and 2 or 3 different times to gather data.  Ty will be asleep for the additional tests and the first one didn't seem to bother him and literally only takes a couple of minutes.  Ty will also participate in an ongoing study of the use and effects of anesthesia on infants for heart surgery.  This study actually uses blood samples that the lab would dispose of, but instead pass down to the research lab.  So he isn't directly impacted, but they get research that may help future little ones.  The last one is the most interesting and important to Chris and I.  Ty's heart issues have overshadowed the fact that he has a genetic mutation of his y chromosome.  Our genetic counselor only found 11 other cases of this in her research.  For this reason, we have submitted Ty's DNA to be held in research lab.  It will be available for years for study.  The last study (so far) is a study of the correlation of body temperature and blood pressure.  An infrared camera will be placed  above Ty after surgery for a couple of days.  They are looking to see of there is a rise or drop in body temperature prior to a change in blood pressure.  He will be one of the first babies to participate in this study.  All four studies, of course, are associated with a number and not his name or identity.  We are very happy that he may be able to help other babies in the future by helping research!  If others hadn't been studied in the past, we wouldn't be where we are getting his heart repaired.  Hopefully we are paying it forward on some small scale.  We believe that this is just one of the many reasons God chose this path for Ty!











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