23/06/2025
To the caregiver who’ve been by wyatt Lopez side throughout his long hospital stay. Wyatt Lopez and his family had been waiting for a lifesaving heart transplant for 8 months so far.
Before wyatt was born, his mom learned he had hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a rare congenital heart condition where one side of the heart doesn’t develop correctly. In a baby with HLHS, the heart’s left side is too small to pump enough blood to the rest of the body.
“wyatt lopez was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit as soon as he was born. He was 12 days old when he had his first open-heart surgery,”
Surgeons typically perform three separate operations to treat HLHS – the first being the Norwood procedure. This operation lets a baby’s right ventricle take over for an underdeveloped left ventricle and aorta. After surgery, the right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs to get oxygen. It also pushes blood with oxygen to the entire body.
“Once a baby is born with HLHS, something needs to be done relatively quickly – so wyatt lopez underwent the Norwood procedure in the first weeks of life,” “Infants feel fine with that for some time, but then something changes. They need more oxygen as they start crawling and walking. That’s when we move on to the Glenn procedure.”
as Wyatt lopez waits for heart transplant, he underwent the Norwood procedure, Glenn procedure-Wyatt lopez underwent the Glenn procedure at 7 months old – his second open-heart surgery before even celebrating his first birthday. this provides blood flow for some additional time before the final surgery, the Fontan procedure, which is done when the child is between 18 months and 4 years old. The three operations put the heart’s workload on the right ventricle, but for wyatt lopez , it wasn’t enough. his heart isn’t strong enough for the third procedure.
the Fontan procedure, some patients can make it into adulthood before they need further palliation. However, other patients fail very early in their childhood, which was the case with wyatt lopez His right ventricle was incapable of providing him with the circulation that was required, and so he was getting sicker and sicker,”
As wyatt lopez began experiencing heart failure, it became apparent a heart transplant was his only option. He was placed on the transplant waiting list in December 2023. From there, he spent Christmas, his first birthday, New Year’s and Easter in the hospital waiting for a new heart.“Every holiday is just another holiday we celebrated in the hospital. We basically moved into his hospital room. At a certain point, you start thinking it’s not coming. I hope sharing his story will inspire others and show the importance of organ donation
“Organ donation saves lives beyond what people understand. When a single person becomes an organ donor, they have the potential to save multiple lives,
To help please donate at https://www.gofundme.com/.../support-wyatts-journey-for-a...
and sign up to be an organ donor... you too can save a life, Becky Maher did just that recently.
