West Branch boy to be honored at Johnson County Heart Walk

WEST BRANCH - Andrew Samuelson is a typical 6-year-old who likes to play catch and shoot baskets.

But when the Hoover Elementary kindergartner was a baby, his parents didn't know if he would ever be able to participate in such childhood activities. Andrew was born with a congenital heart defect.

“It was pretty unexpected,” says his mother Tonya Samuelson. “We never thought we would have a child born with a heart defect, being young healthy parents with no family history of anything.”

Although he has been named the American Heart Association's Heart Child for the Johnson County Heart Walk planned for May 7, Andrew doesn't understand what all the fuss is about.

“We've really tried to make him not feel different,” Tonya Samuelson says. “He doesn't know what to think about this.”

Shortly after Andrew was born on Sept. 20, 2004, in Ames, a nurse noticed he was paler than most newborns and was not breathing normally. After tests, it was determined he had coarctation, or a narrowing of the aorta, a hypo plastic aortic arch and a ventricular septal defect. The news shocked his parents, Shawn, 33, and Tonya, 32, Samuelson. Neither had any family history of heart disease, and Tonya had an uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery.

The morning after his birth, Andrew was transferred to Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines for further observation.

To treat pulmonary hypertension, he was transferred to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

He was kept sedated so as not to agitate him because of his pulmonary hypertension, Shawn Samuelson says.

After three weeks, he was stable enough for surgery. Surgeons restructured his aorta and put in a synthetic patch.

“We didn't get to hold him for three weeks,” Tonya Samuelson says. “That was hard - to not be able to pick him up and hold him.”

Andrew had a second surgery before his second birthday to remove scar tissue that was disrupting blood flow.

After that surgery, his heart didn't have a rhythm of its own and an external pacemaker was used to keep his heart beating normally.

The day he was scheduled to have a third surgery to place an internal pacemaker in his chest, doctors discovered his heart was keeping a normal beat on its own and he was able to avoid another surgery.

The Samuelson family moved to West Branch in 2007 to be closer to family in Cedar Rapids and West Liberty.

When Tonya Samuelson was pregnant with their second child, Layla, 4, doctors did an extra ultrasound to see if her heart was developing normally. It was.

The family will join teams in the Heart Walk, which raises money for the American Heart Association and awareness of heart disease.

“Heart disease affects children too, not just old men,” Tonya Samuelson says. “Heart disease isn't always a heart attack.”The event aims to raise $115,000 for the heart association's research and prevention programs.

This summer, Andrew, who is not on any medications and doesn't have any restrictions, plans to go swimming and ride horses.

“He's just as normal as the next kid,” Shawn Samuelson says.