CHOC PATIENTS MARK VALENTINE'S WITH HEART DOCTORS WHO SAVED THEM. - OC REGISTER

February 14, 2005

Reprinted from the Orange County Register - February 14, 2005

By TOM BERG
The Orange County Register

ORANGE – A Christmas card didn't quite seem right. And really, not even a thank-you card or a letter seemed enough - though many in this room had tried all three.

No, this had to be done in person.

"How do you say thank you for something like this?" said Nicole Lopez, 29, of Huntington Beach, cuddling her 3-month-old baby boy, Asher, who was born with a hole in his heart.

Around her stood 60 other parents, all with children who'd undergone heart surgery at Children's Hospital of Orange County. They gathered Saturday to thank the doctors and nurses who guided them through the darkest days of their lives. And what better time than Valentine's Day weekend to thank someone for the gift of fixing a broken heart?

"It's something they do every day," said Lopez's husband Jeff, 31, a fire captain for the Huntington Beach Fire Department. "And the way they think of it, it must be a procedure, and they're just going to work that day. But for us, they're saving our kid's life!"

CHOC surgeons performed more than 200 heart surgeries on children last year, often done with the help of a heart- lung machine that keeps the child alive while his or her heart is stopped.

"All of a sudden, the world comes down on you," said Jeff Lopezof the feeling it evokes. "We gave him a kiss in the hallway, and he went into surgery while we went to the waiting room and prayed for him."

Saturday's reunion featured clowns, dancing, balloons, even dogs and cats for the children to play with. It was a chance, parents said, to celebrate with people they'd grown close to but had never really seen in a happy setting. Hospital staffers felt the same way.

"For us, it's a shot in the arm to see the fruits of our hard work," said Jo Hanson, a case manager and specialty nurse for cardiology, who hugged each family at the door. "It's invigorating. It reaffirms why we do what we do."

Nearby stood the parents of Lilyanne Chavez, 8 months, who underwent open-heart surgery at 4 days old. Her mom, Elizabeth Chavez, 23, of Anaheim, described Lily anne's birth as "the best thing that ever happened. I can't compare it to anything."

Within hours of being born, however, Lilyanne turned blue from a lack of oxygen.

The great vessels of her heart were reversed. Doctors needed to repair them immediately.

"It's a miracle," Elizabeth Chavez said of the surgery. "You look back at the pictures of her in the hospital after, with all those tubes and wires, and now she looks like this - normal."

She and her husband, Sgt. Richard Chavez, 26, a Marine at Camp Pendleton, mailed pictures of Lilyanne and a thank-you card to her surgeon, Dr. Mark Bleiweis, but wanted to say thank you in person. To see the doctors, nurses and staff in a fun setting. To take pictures and see other families they'd met along the way.

Due to room limitations, CHOC mailed invitations to families of patients going back only a few years. But one person managed to sneak in anyway.

Alfred Cruz, 24, of Anaheim had heart surgery 22 years ago, at the age of 2. Recently, his mom saw something about Saturday's reunion online and told him.

"I wanted to see my doctors again," said Cruz, who swims, skateboards and bodyboards. "And I thought it would be good if parents saw an adult who's experienced this. Maybe I could be an inspiration or a hope that their son or daughter would eventually be fine."

Cruz still bears a foot-long scar on his chest from surgery - a scar that embarrassed him in his youth.

"I always felt I had to cover it up and shield myself," he said. "Since then, I guess you could say it's my badge of courage. You know, I went through this and I'm still fine."

The scar does remind him how fragile life is.

And beautiful.

On Saturday, those reminders were everywhere, even on scraps of paper.

As the last families waved goodbye, a quiet man accompanying his wife and daughter pressed a small piece of paper into the hand of Bleiweis and said, "Do you remember me?"

"I've never forgotten you," Bleiweis said, waving goodbye to the man, his wife and the girl he'd operated on nearly two years ago.

After they'd left, Bleiweis held up the scrap of paper. On it was a handwritten name and number, nothing more.

"His baby was so sick," Bleiweis said. "So sick. And after surgery, he gave me his phone number and said, 'Doctor, I don't have much, I don't have money, but if you ever need anything, if you need boxes moved or someone to move anything, you can call me up. Anytime.'"

Bleiweis, the director of CHOC's Heart Institute, paused to press a hand to his eyes, to dry them.

Almost all of the families were gone now.

"Here it is a year and a half later," he said. "And he says the same thing. This is too much."

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