James Strauss was born with a bicuspid valve in his heart with severe stenosis.
“It can be rapidly fatal for children if it is not diagnosed in time, so the fact that we caught it soon after he was born was really pivotal because his heart wasn’t struggling for too long,” said Jerry Michael, MD, FAAP, FACC, Pediatric and Fetal Cardiologist at Driscoll Children’s Hospital.
Within the first 18 hours of his life James had his first procedure to help fix his heart at the Heart Center at Driscoll Children’s Hospital.
The procedure was a success but it was soon apparent that it was not going to be enough. Within a few weeks the Heart Center’s team of doctors evaluated James and recommended to the Strauss family that James would need open-heart surgery.
One month and one day after being born, James had open-heart surgery at The Heart Center at Driscoll Children’s Hospital. The surgery was a success and James was back home five days after surgery.
Thanks to the lifesaving care James received from The Heart Center at Driscoll Children’s Hospital, he can now live as close to a normal life as any child his age.
