Oliver Merlob, 7 years old, is thriving. His cheeks are pink and his energy is like that of any other active first-grader.
But Oliver wasn’t always the picture of health: He was born a “blue baby.” His listlessness and the blue cast to his skin were caused by a lack of oxygen in his blood, due to a congenital defect called “tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia.”
That means there’s “a hole between the heart’s two pumping chambers [ventricles] and a severe narrowing out to the pulmonary arteries,” explains Oliver’s cardiologist Evan Zahn, M.D., director of the Congenital Heart Program at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles.
What changed Oliver’s life is a new technology called the Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve. At age 4-1/2, he became one of the youngest beneficiaries of the
device, an artificial pulmonary valve that was implanted via a catheter threaded up to his heart through a tiny incision in his leg.
LeakTronics is a company who cares. Each year, we donate to Children’s Hospitals. The Children’s Cardiac Care Units are especially close to our hearts and are well known to us personally. These children don’t deserve to be in hospitals with cardiac problems. They deserve to be out playing, like those with healthy hearts. In 2005, we learned that the owners son was born with multiple Congenital Heart Defects and was going to have a life monitored by these most important Doctors and Nurses.
Well, years later and what modern medicine and technology have done to give Oliver a greater outlook on his life is amazing!. Every day he grows taller, smarter and stronger. He gets into things just as a boy his age would. Oliver will have many years of Doctors and Hospitals ahead of him and by giving back, everyone benefits. Hopefully, someday there will be an answer for every cardiac ailment out there.
Please be aware that we don’t accept or distribute cash money for donations. All donations are toys purchased directly from our proceeds. If you’d like to donate a toy to a child, please feel free to do so by contacting our office.
