Team Travis: Sharing Travis' story

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Sharing Travis' story

Here is an article that was written about our family and the struggles and triumphs we have had over this past year.

The article came about when the sports writer was shocked that I was back to coaching and asked if he could do a feature on our family. I was honored to share our story as we have shared our entire journey with Travis and beyond. Anyway that we can keep Travis memory alive is okay with me.

Here is the article. STAYING STRONG by Terry Monahan

A few errors....1) 'most' HLHS patients do not live into their 30's. Most do not. The surgical approach is too new to know how long anticipated survival is. 2) You all know travis passed away after his FOURTH surgery....not his first.

Staying Strong for Addie Sue. Love that Travis picture is in the background.

I wear a small "T" pin on my heart for my boy.

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Travis Gary DiCarlo

Travis Gary DiCarlo, first son of Roger and Nicole DiCarlo, was born at San Diego Kaiser Hospital, October 23, 2009 with a Congenital Heart Defect known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, or HLHS. The short explanation is that Travis was born with only half of a heart. In order for him to live, a series of three operations were planned.

Due to an infection, Travis had to have an additional open heart surgery to insert pulmonary artery bands on October 29, 2009. He had his Norwood Surgery on November 21, 2009. He was sent home on December 14, 2009 from Rady's Children Hospital of San Diego after spending his first 52 nights of life in the hospital.

After being home for several months, Travis was due to for his next surgery in the plan, the Glenn procedure. But the life of a cardiac kid can change in an instant and life doesn't always go as planned. Due to the anatomy of his heart and some rhythm issues, Travis had what the surgeons called Norwood part 2. They replaced his Sano Shunt with a bigger one, enlarged his pulmonary arteries and installed a pacemaker. This surgery was performed on May 3, 2010. Travis went home on May 17th, 2010.

Around Travis' first birthday in October his cardiologist detected some narrowing in his pulmonary artery and ordered a heart cath. The heart cath showed extensive narrowing in his aorta and his pulmonary artery. On February 17, 2011 Travis had his 4th open heart surgery. He was doing well with recovery until he suddenly went into cardiac arrest on Friday (2/18). After two hours of CPR Travis was placed on ECMO (a heart/lung bypass). Although his heart did begin to beat again on its own, his brain was damaged during the whole ordeal and he lost all brain function. We had to say goodbye to our beautiful boy on Saturday, February 19th. We miss our boy terribly.....