Jackson Update 1: His First Day

Hello Friends and Family,

I wanted to let you all know that Jackson Fisher Allen was born on September 12 at 7:05 PM. He weighed 9.5 pounds and measured at 22.5 inches: quite a big fellow. Juliette was a real trooper and, after three hours of trying to push that big baby out, she decided to have a C-Section instead. She is now recovering from the operation and should released from Centenial Hospital late this week.

Jackson, however, is not doing well. He suffers from a congenital heart defect known as Transposition of the Great Arteries: a situation in which the aorta and pulmonary artery in his heart are reversed (there's more information at this website if you're interested - http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=11074). He also has a hole in his heart between the left and right ventricles. Transposition of the Great Arteries is typically not discovered in ultrasounds so we didn't know there would be problems until he quickly feel into bad shape during the emergent C-Section and had serious problems right after delivery. After being diagnosed, Jackson was transported to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital where he is now in stable condition and will remain for at least a few weeks.

If these are the only problems he has, Jackson will undergo arterial switch operation, sometime within the next week, in which surgeons will switch the pulmonary artery and the aorta. However, the doctors are waiting to perform another echocardiogram because there is the possibility that he has a weak pulmonary artery, in which case they don't yet have a solution. Please keep this little boy in your prayers as he has a very difficult few weeks ahead of him. Fortunately, he is a big strong baby and can pull through this. We will keep you all updated as the doctors learn more.