On January 30, 2024, after a fast and furious helicopter ride from Greenville, our Sweet Strong Sam was born at Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital in Charleston with LCDH (left side congenital diaphragmatic hernia. CDH occurs when a baby's diaphragm isn't fully formed and has a hole, allowing for organs to migrate through the hole into the chest cavity, ultimately taking up the space that the lung/lungs need to grow. In Sam's case, which was considered moderate prenatal, his intestines, spleen, stomach, and most of his liver had migrated to his chest. He was delivered in the OR with 15+ people and intubated immediately. He did really well the first two days of life, and went in for repair surgery to move the organs down on his third day of life. His surgery went perfectly, until it didn't. As they were closing him up, he had a major pulmonary hypertension crisis and went into cardiac arrest 3 times. After resuscitation, we were told that placing him on ECMO (the highest form of life support) was our only option. Due to the loss of oxygen during cardiac arrest, Sam lost 60% of his short bowel and had two level 2 brain bleeds. He was on open chested ECMO for 21 days and was ventilated for almost 3 months. He spent the first 7.5 months of his life at MUSC where he fought so hard, and we witnessed miracle after miracle over his life. 

       When we brought Sam home from the hospital on September 12, 2024, he came home with a central line to receive total parental nutrition, an NG tube for formula feeds, an ostomy bag, and oxygen. He is thriving now at 15 months old and is off oxygen, no longer has an ostomy bag, has a gtube, and has decreased to only 10 hours of TPN each day. He is the happiest, bravest boy ever and we are so thankful to God for his life.

       We had never heard of Happy Wheels prior to Sam's hospital stay, but were connected with them within the first two weeks of his life and continued to see them almost weekly for the entire 7.5 months we were at MUSC. We have also been visited by Happy Wheels when we have had short stays here in Greenville. It's hard to put into words the joy a friendly smile and toy/book can bring when you are living in the hospital fighting for your baby's life. Getting to choose a toy or book for Sam gave me a little bit of normalcy that I so desperately missed as Sam's newborn/baby days were anything but normal. My 6-year-old daughter and husband came each weekend from Greenville, and it was always so fun for big sister Annie to see what new toy or book Sam had received that week. She spent weekend after weekend at his bedside, reading to him and helping him play with his toys, allowing her to feel some normalcy, and this was so great for his development. We will forever be thankful for the amazing mission of Happy Wheels, and they will always have a special place in our hearts!