By Kristine Kern
Murray County News Staffwriter
There will be a benefit for the Mike and Melissa Einck family of Wilmont on Sunday, January 22nd from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at St. Columba Hall in Iona. Mike and Melissa are expecting their second child in February. The baby has a heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). There’s a mitral valve that lets the blood go to the left ventricle and that’s blocked. What happens is the lungs give the left ventricle blood, but they can’t get any oxygenated blood throughout the body. If that isn’t fixed, it’s fatal. Babies with HLHS have an underdeveloped left side of the heart and cannot pump enough blood to meet the bodies needs. According to the hospital’s website, HLHS occurs in one of every 5,000 births. In the United States, approximately 1,000 babies are born with HLHS each year.
Treatment generally consists of three surgeries. The Einck’s have been referred to Mott’s Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI. The hospital was among the first congenital health programs to achieve consistent success with surgical treatment of HLHS. The plan for baby Einck, like other babies born with HLHS, is to follow the first heart surgery with a second when the baby is four to six months old, and a third surgery when he or she is between 18 months and two years old.
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