Hunter Lee Cooper, born September 29th, 2022
In February 2022 we found out that we were pregnant with our fourth child. We were excited for this new addition to our family. Then came the anatomy scan at 20 weeks and we found out that we were having our fourth boy but we also found out that his heart wasn’t developing correctly. It was a couple weeks later that we heard the term Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. That means that the left ventricle, which pumps blood to the brain and limbs, wasn’t big enough to pump blood to his body.
Hunter was born three weeks early due to medical concerns with his mother who developed pre-eclampsia around 7 months and was put on bed rest. Once Hunter was born on September 29th, 2022, at 9:47am via c-section, he was taken almost immediately to the NICU. Within 12 hours he was intubated, and then within 24 hours he had his first heart surgery. This first one was to place a balloon stint in the aortic valve to hopefully open that up to allow blood flow. The valve did improve some but not enough to make a difference.
At two weeks old Hunter was transferred from Tucson Children’s Hospital NICU to Phoenix Children’s Hospital CVICU (cardiovascular intensive care unit). A week after he was transferred, he underwent open heart surgery to reroute his heart to work on the right side alone. Usually there are three of these surgeries to be done before 5 years of age. The first at 2 weeks, the second between 2 months to 6 months, the third before 5 years. Hunter’s heart doesn’t seem to be able to handle single ventricle life. Even with the previous two surgeries his heart still isn’t functioning correctly and can’t handle any form of stress. Next step now is a heart transplant.
Now he waits for a donor heart to become available and is on high flow oxygen.
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) helps children and young adults who need a life-saving transplant by providing fundraising assistance and family support. COTA is the nation’s only fundraising organization solely dedicated to raising life-saving dollars in honor of transplant-needy children and young adults. 100% of each contribution made to COTA in honor of our patients helps meet transplant-related expenses. COTA’s services are free to our families, and gifts to COTA are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.