Julian Pennington is a 4 month old boy who loves to play with his brother, giggle at his mama and dada, and recently has found a love for Christmas lights.
Before Julian was born, we found out that he had a hole in his heart and had to get more ultrasounds to figure out what was going on. After several ultrasounds, echocardiograms, and visits with tons of doctors, it was evident that Julian had a lot more going on with his heart. A lot was unknown at that time and we had to do a lot of waiting before getting his full diagnosis.
He was born on July 24, 2023 at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh and immediately transferred via ambulance to Children’s Hospital, where we discovered his true diagnosis: DORV (Double Outlet Right Ventricle), doubly committed VSD (hole in the heart), and pulmonary stenosis.
Interestingly enough his heart is also on the wrong side of his chest and backwards.
Julian has a long road ahead in terms of recovery for his condition, but he is a tough and well-loved little guy.
Julian underwent open heart surgery on December 11, 2023 to repair the pulmonary stenosis by inserting a conduit. The conduit is made of synthetic material that unfortunately does not grown with him, so ti will need to be replaced likely three additional times throughout his life. Each time he will need open heart surgery to replace the conduit so his heart is able to do what it needs to do. The recovery following open heart surgery for an infant is about 8 weeks.
In addition to Julian’s heart problems, we recently found out that he also has a nasal dermoid cyst on his nose. This will also require a surgery with ENT and plastic surgery but is delayed due to his current heart surgery procedure.
He is truly a strong little boy and has taken every curve ball thrown at him.
See related article about the Forsythe's Snowball Kickball Benefit that benefits Zane Morgan.