A beautiful baby boy in the U.K. is growing and thriving after a terrifying defect in his heart meant he needed open-heart surgery at just 4 days old. '
Any parent would be terrified in this situation. No one wants to face the thought of losing a little one just as they come into the world.
After all, we've watched parents fight through hell and high water to find a solution — any solution — for their babies, like the mom that realized her baby's skull would need to be broken to save his life.
Still, even though all parents are willing to move heaven and earth to give their children a shot at happiness and health, it's still an incredibly scary decision to make.
However, for the parents of this particular little tyke, Reggie Aslin, there was never any question. He needed the surgery, and they were going to make sure he got it.
Read on below to learn his remarkable story!
Little Reggie Aslin was born happy and healthy on September 1, 2016.
The sweet baby boy was delivered via C-section, and weighed in at a hefty 9 lbs., 12 oz.
He had 10 fingers, 10 toes, and a full head of hair — there was just one problem: Reggie was missing half his heart.
Little Reggie was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a rare condition that causes half the heart to fail to develop.
Reggie's parents, Lee and Michelle Aslin, found out that their baby boy would be affected by HLHS at their 20-week scan.
At that point, doctors told the Aslins that his condition was very severe. They said he had roughly a 50-50 chance of surviving and might have a drastically reduced life expectancy even if he were to survive infancy.
The Aslins knew the odds from the 20-week mark on, but there was never really any question of what they would do.
They decided to keep fighting through the pregnancy and make sure Reggie got every last bit of care possible, no matter what happened.
As Lee Aslin put it to the Daily Mail, "At one point a few months ago I was wondering whether I would ever get to take my little boy home… We didn't know if he was going to be breathing when he was born."
But little Reggie defied the odds from the very beginning.
The otherwise healthy baby boy put his fighting spirit to work just four days after coming into the world, when doctors performed the first of many operations to treat his heart condition.
The operation was done to replumb Reggie's heart, essentially working to compensate for the missing chambers that didn't develop properly.
The surgery baby Reggie went through was a grueling nine-hour process that had to be performed on an open heart.
For comparison, the average triple bypass surgery lasts for about six hours, so at just 4 days old, Reggie was experiencing a medical challenge on an incredibly large scale.
Despite the long and challenging surgery, Reggie came through like a trooper.
The chubby and adorable baby boy not only survived the complicated three-step procedure, he did it with flying colors!
After the surgery, he needed to stay in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for six long weeks for monitoring.
He spent his time in the hospital recovering and thriving, and his family finally got to bring him home!
"We were feeling a little bit nervous bringing him home but he is doing everything for himself," noted Lee. "He is a little heart warrior. He is a little miracle."
Despite his rocky start in life, Reggie is no typical hospital patient.
"He has been through more in his few weeks of life than I have in 35 years," Dad added. "He is definitely a little fighter."
Now, Reggie is happy at home with Mom and Dad, who are eagerly anticipating celebrating the holiday season with the whole family together.
Michelle also has a 13-year-old daughter, and we have no doubt that she's just delighted to have her baby brother home at last.
They're excited that he'll be able to spend this time at home with the family instead of in the NICU that's been home base for the past six weeks.
Still, the fight isn't over just yet.
Reggie's first operation was hopefully the most complex and intensive surgery he'll have to go through, but it was just the first of many.
Because his condition will change as he grows, he'll need to have future heart procedures to maintain the plumbing of his heart.
The survival rate for Reggie's condition isn't particularly promising either. Right now, most patients with his condition only live into their teens.
Despite the grim prognosis, the Aslins hope they bought Reggie enough extra time for medicine to catch up with his condition, and provide new advancements.
As for future surgeries, they aren't worried. "The first operation is always the most dangerous one because it is the longest and most complex, so that was the biggest hurdle," Dad said. "Because he has pulled through that, we have got all the confidence in the world that he will pull through the others."
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