Heart research makes happy lives possible

I really appreciated the April 27 article about Andrew Samuelson. Much like his heart defects caught his parents by surprise, so did our son's. His 12th birthday is today, two days before the Johnson County Heart Walk that Andrew will participate in.

The doctor's discovered T.J.'s heart defects while he was in utero as part of a routine checkup. Various tests showed T.J. had something called Polysplenia, which created serious complex heart defects.

T.J. had his first surgery at five weeks with nine more over the first 10 years of his life. Unlike Andrew, T.J. had to have a pacemaker placed internally because of a heart block.

I am grateful for heart research and that T.J. is alive and well today because of the hard work and dedication of the staff at Mayo Clinic, Rochester.

T.J. has four older siblings who enjoy him very much. I will never forget shortly after T.J. was born our oldest daughter Anna said she was glad we had T.J. “because he made our family happy.” Anna is studying biomedical engineering at Purdue because, I believe in large part, of the impact T.J. has had on her life.

I agree that he has made our family happy.

Beth Kvindlog

Cedar Rapids