January 11th Adriel was scheduled for his first open heart surgery, at 7 days old. Mom had to trust the cardiology team to take her baby to be able to save his life. An hour after he went in family received a call that surgery plans changed and that they needed to be at the hospital promptly. Mom and dad sat there, for what felt like forever waiting for news, was it good, was it bad?

Finally, Dr. Turrentine came and told mom and dad that his left side had developed a lot better than what they thought, and along with Adriel’s Cardiologist, Dr. John J. Parent, they had decided to opt out of the Fonton surgery. Mom trusted Dr. Parent with everything since he had been her daughter, Natalie’s cardiologist for 8 years at that time. Parent’s heart felt at peace knowing he was involved.

They told family that they only widened Adriel’s aorta, because instead of having 3 valves, he only had 1. They didn’t know for sure if the procedure would work or not. Mom remembered clearly when they told her “we will give him 4 weeks for him to show us if it worked or not” then he slowly started getting better. The IVs slowly disappeared and so did the oxygen.

Family started having some hope! They were so very thankful and full of gratitude for all who had cared for him through such an eventful time.