Lauren Pais was born on June 8, 1988 at Highland Park Hospital. Six hours later, she was rushed in an ambulance to Children’s Memorial Hospital after being diagnosed with hypoplastic right heart syndrome, a hole in her heart, and a murmer. She had 3 corrective surgeries at Children’s Memorial Hospital by her 3rd birthday. Now, at the age of 20, Lauren is a junior at Indiana University studying communications and fundraising.

In January, 2005, our unborn child was diagnosed with Truncus Arteriosus, an uncommon, complex heart defect. On May 9, 2005, our daughter Charlotte was born (4 weeks early). Within twelve hours the Children’s Service Board Transport Team of Children’s Memorial Hospital had transferred her to Children’s and she was in the warm and competent care of the CV and PICU teams.

Izabella Rose Brancato was born May 19th, 2006 via c-section. You might say this may have saved her life. When she was born she was beautiful, pink and a great apgar. The next morning, our doctor came for a rountine baby well check. She said Izabella had a heart murmer but most babies out- grow it. We thought nothing since Izabella's papa had a heart murmer. The next day, same routine but she said the rumor was louder. She said she was sure it was fine but she would rather be safe then sorry. We are so glad we have such a great doctor.

On October 28, 2005, Trevor James was born. By all accounts he was a healthy young man. He was my biggest baby yet, at seven and a half pounds. After a few relaxing days at the hospital together, we left together to introduce him to his new home and two other “moms”…his siblings, Kelsey, 3 ½, and Emily, 1 ½. Life with three was remarkably easy at first. This was largely due to the fact that Trevor, unlike his sisters, liked to sleep quite a lot. Unfortunately, my husband and I did not recognize his sleepiness as a symptom of a greater problem.

You can always learn a lot from your children. They teach you to have fun. They show you the simple pleasures in life. They teach you how to do their math homework. They give you joy, show their unconditional love, make you laugh, inspire you to try new things. Did you ever think they would teach you how to use a feeding tube? Did you think they would teach you how to measure medicine in milliliters and know the complex function of each drug? Did you know they could teach you about strength, patience, hope and success all through an open-heart surgery? They can.

My daughter Reese was born on December 10, 2005. One of the nurses detected a heart murmur upon examining her after her birth. We were told that it was probably nothing, but we needed to get a few tests run. A tumor was detected in the pumping chamber of her heart. The tumor was very unstable and it obstructed her blood flow. The fear was that the tumor could have broken off and flowed into her aeorta, which would have meant the worst imaginable scenario.

On August 11, 2005 we had a beautiful baby boy, Joshua Bennett Paul. About 4 hours after our baby was born, the nurse and a pediatrician came into our room to tell us that something was severely wrong with him. He was put on a ventilator and an ambulance was rushing to transport him to The Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Joshua’s blood oxygen was well below 50%; a healthy newborn is generally oxygenating at 100%.