Gabe

Back in August, a woman named Lisa posted a comment on this blog. At that time, she, too, was pregnant with a baby with HLHS. Her son, Gabriel, was born just a couple of days later on August 17th. We e-mailed back and forth, and I found out that she, too, was writing a blog about her experiences, and I followed Gabe's story from the time of his birth.

Every child with HLHS goes through some scary things, but Gabe's stage one hybrid surgery went very smoothly, and I watched him grow up into an adorable, smiling, healthy-looking infant.

A couple of weeks ago, Gabe went in for his stage 2 hybrid procedure. He had a difficult recovery, but at first, his setbacks seemed like things that he could overcome. Then he started to have more serious problems. He had blood clots in his lungs and uncontrolled bleeding in his brain, and his doctors couldn't treat one without exacerbating the other. Yesterday, December 31st, Gabe passed away in his parents' arms.

Lisa has been a supportive and generous friend to me, and the loss of Gabe is absolutely devastating. It's a sobering reminder to me to appreciate every day I have with Magnus, and with everyone else I love.