Laura's mum and dad Steve and Judy sent their story to Left Heart Matters.

We are Steve and Judy Slobodnik of Mt. Pleasant Iowa. We are parents of Laura at 19 months. She was born on September 6th, 1996 and diagnosed two days later with AVSD, COA and HLHS.

At 12 days old she had her 1st stage surgery which consisted of PA banding and repair of her coarcted aortic arch. Laura suffered heart arrest 15 minutes after arriving in PICU. Two days later they detected seizures and started her on medication she still is on. Laura had a sep back in January 1997 for Hydrocephalus and had surgery to place a shunt behind her right ear. In May of 1997 Laura had the hemi-fontan surgery. Then 5 days later they put in a BT shunt. Her first surgery resulted in 60 days in the hospital the second surgery 30 days.

We are know working on catching her development up and independent feeding.

Steve and Judy