Santiago’s Story

Santiago was born on October 14, 2014, at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Santiago was born with a heart condition known as hypoplastic left heart syndrome, also known as half a heart. He had a total of three open-heart surgeries to reconstruct his heart. Santiago was doing really well until things started to change. We learned that Santiago’s heart was really sick and doctors thought that he would benefit from a heart transplant. In order for Santiago to be placed on a heart transplant waiting list, we needed to relocate ourselves to Colorado. Santiago has been an inpatient at Children’s Hospital. It has been a long journey for us since he has been really sick. Santiago went into cardiac arrest and had to be placed on ECMO because of that. Later on, he had a heart ware ventricular assist device placed to help his heart. In the past three months, Santiago has also been through delirium and a stroke. We are happy to say that doctors, therapists, and medication have helped Santiago feel better and continue recovering. We are still looking for the right heart for him.

-Story by Santiago’s mom