Baby with heart transplant making strong progress - WSMV Channel 4
Member Center:
There's been a big turnaround for a baby who has been struggling to survive since receiving a heart transplant soon after birth.
Channel 4 has been following baby Andrew Hagewood's progress for months, and now he has finally been moved from Vanderbilt's Intensive Care Unit.
Mother Christy Hagewood said it's hard not to smile and is hard to believe that a life so unlikely on Day One is still growing stronger on Day 194.
"It's a very surreal feeling to have faced so many hurdles for him and still to be sitting here," she said.
After six unpredictable months, this week Andrew may soon be able to go home.
"He is doing all the breathing on his own. He is doing what babies should do," said father Keith Hagewood.
Andrew was born with a rare heart condition and desperately needed a transplant. He soon got one, but then he experienced major unexpected complications, including blood clots and fluids his body wouldn't hold.
"He was still in extreme danger, but he had chest tube fluids. So it's like having a hole in your bucket," Keith Hagewood said.
But things have since turned around. Now, Andrew is healthier, gaining weight and is off most of the machines that for so long worked to keep him alive.
For his mom and dad, it's also comforting to hear him cry.
"He can alert us by his cry of what he wants. And he cries appropriately. He cries when he's dirty. He cries when he's sleepy," Christy Hagewood said.
Doctors said Andrew's respiratory system still needs to grow a bit stronger, so it could be just a few weeks before he's finally cleared to go home.
Some at Vanderbilt Medical Center are calling it a blessing for parents who continue to believe and a miracle for a kid who seems to keep fighting.
The Hagewoods said they feel so grateful for the donor family, because their son wouldn't be alive today without that new heart.
A fundraiser will be held for Andrew later this month at the Robertson County Fair. For more information on that event, and to follow Andrew's progress, visit his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/AHeartForAndrew
Copyright WSMV 2012 (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
 | 
|
