Zane Oakley Wenger CHD Awareness Campaign

After Zane had his cath on October 4, 2013, he was admitted to the Pediatric Cardiology Intensive Care Unit (PCICU) at MUSC in Charleston, SC and was on the ventilator and many medications for about 2 weeks, until he had his first of 3 open heart surgeries. He had the "Hybrid" completed due to how sick Zane was from his heart defect. During the first 2 weeks, he had complications including Super Ventricular Tachycardia (SVT), low blood pressure, serious damage to his lungs, and several other things requiring medications. The drs. waited until they had most of the complications under control before doing surgery. His open heart surgery went well and they continued to monitor him in the PCICU for several weeks after his surgery. During his stay, he went to the cath lab a second time to have his stents ballooned due to closing and had his aorta ballooned due to narrowing, and he had a g-tube placed due to severe reflux and vomiting. He was discharged from the PCICU and relocated to the Peds Cardiology Unit, Telemetry, where feeding problems continued. Zane was discharged on from the hospital and went home for the first time since birth on December 12, 2013. The next day Zane had pulled his g-tube out and we had to take him back to MUSC to have it replaced and have a g-tube study completed in the radiology dept. The next day the balloon had deflated and back to MUSC we went with Zane for the same thing again. On January 2, 2013, Zane was admitted back to MUSC with the RYNO virus (common cold) spent 3 weeks in the hospital. He also, during that stay, had a GJ tube placed to replace his g tube, then had that removed and had a peg tube placed to help with reflux and vomiting.

Zane will have at least 2 more open heart surgeries, several cath lab visits, weekly clinic visits to see his cardiologist, Occupational and Physical Therapy, single ventricle nurse practitioner and others. Zane has a long road ahead of him.
More babies die from CHD's than all the childhood cancers combined, yet there is very little awareness for CHD's. Please help us spread the word about CHD's! Follow Zanes story on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/zaneoakleywenger