“When Jordan was in elementary school, she raised over $1,000 for the American Heart Association. It was through the Jump Rope for Heart activity. She was the top fundraiser in her school. Based on that, and as someone who shows initiative and good character, she was nominated as a Teen of Impact for our area.

“She’s competing with seven other kids in the Houston area. She gets to run her own campaign. She picked team members, like family and friends, and she’ll be doing events and asking for donations to support the American Heart Association.

“It’s important to her and to our family. My dad had a stroke and then open-heart surgery before he passed. His brother, my uncle, died in his sleep from heart disease. They were both pretty young, still in their 50s. So we have a history of that in our family, and that kind of encouraged Jordan to want to raise money in memory of her papa, David Mourer, and her uncle, Chris.

“It’s also an opportunity for her to do something that a lot of kids her age don’t get to do. She’s 13 and is in seventh grade at Cedar Bayou. And she’s very excited to be doing something that kind of feels adult. Something that can really make a difference in people’s lives.”

— Abbey Mourer

Jordan is active in theater at school, and enjoys playing softball and doing crafts. If you would like to support her campaign, learn more on her Teen of Impact page.

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“When I was 39, I was told that I had congestive heart failure. It was a virus that got in there. It was tough to even walk across the kitchen. But over time I got stronger and stronger, and they moved me down from the transplant list.

“I got tired of sitting around, so I went back to work for quite a long time. Then it reared its head again about five years ago. I had to wear a vest that would shock me if my heart went off rhythm. As things progressed, they put in a pump to keep my heart going. That was one of the first times I kind of cried and let it all out. I realized this thing is not going backwards. My heart was failing. I needed a new one.

“That’s where Justin Smith comes in. He was 24 years old, and driving the back roads not far from his home in Silsbee, when he was involved in an accident. Tragically, he lost his life. But God bless him, he was an organ donor. Five organs from his body went to help other people, all in Texas. I was so very fortunate to receive his heart.

“I had the transplant on May 28, 2018. And maybe a year later, I got to meet his mom, his dad, his stepfather, his brothers and his sister at a small cafe in Silsbee. Man, there were a lot of tears that day. I wanted to hold them back and be strong for Justin’s mom, but it wasn’t possible. I mean, we held each other for a while because she felt like she was hugging her son.

“She told me how Justin used to say to her in different situations, ‘Everything’s going to be all right, mama. It’ll be all right.’ So I looked at her, and while gently patting my heart, I said, ‘You know what, it’ll be all right, mama. It’ll be all right.’

“I think about Justin and his family every day. How can I not? I’ll be 67 in August. And his unselfish act of being a registered donor saved my life.”

— Tim Reed

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“I have heart failure and SVT (supraventricular tachycardia), which is like an irregular heart beat. It makes me feel tired a lot. Some days I have to stay in bed. I can’t play with them like I used to. I can’t run and do things like I used to when they were very little. I’ve had it for about five years. This past year, it got worse. I was at the hospital once or twice a week for a few months, until they got me on the right heart medication. It helps. I haven’t been back to the ER in two or three months.

“I try not to think about it too much. I do what I can do and just know my limits. One of the things I really enjoy is eating lunch with them at school. I’ve been doing it pretty much every day since they started. I just miss them too much when they’re not at home. Everyone at school knows me. All the teachers know me. All the janitors know me. The front desk, they all know me. They automatically type in my name and give me my sticker.

“And I know the kids like it. They ask me every day, every single day: ‘Are you going to eat lunch with us today?’ If there’s ever a time that I can’t make it, they’re like, ‘Where were you? Why weren’t you there?’ When I was growing up, it’s something my mom wasn’t able to do. She was a single mom with four girls. She had to work all the time. Maybe that’s why I do it with them, because I have the opportunity that my mom didn’t have. It’s a pretty special time for us.”

— Jessica Fernandez (with Jasmine and Santiago Jr.)

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“I’ve been going to church more since Owen was born. You just look for that comfort and peace. Plus, my family and our mutual friends have helped support and motivate us. We have a type of village that looks out for us. I mean, it’s been really hard on all of us. But we’ve been able to stick together and see it through.”

“Owen has been through so much this year. But he’s a little fighter. And what I see in ourselves is that there’s a strength you don’t know you have until you’re pushed to the limit. We’ve had so many obstacles, we almost don’t pay attention to them anymore. It’s like, OK, this is what we’re going to do this week. If you would have asked us last year, I probably would have told you there’s no way we’re going to make it through everything we’ve faced as a family. But then, you just do.”

— Blanca Aguilar Bobo and Blake Bobo

Their son, Owen, is facing life-saving heart surgery related to his rare genetic condition, Williams Syndrome. The family needs help with costs associated with his care that their insurance does not cover. Check their GoFundMe page to learn more about their journey and how you can help.

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“His cardiologist told us that he’s the sickest kid he’s ever seen who does not look sick. When you look at his scans you think, there’s no way they could belong to this kid.”

Born with a rare genetic condition known as Williams Syndrome, 9-month-old Owen’s aorta and pulmonary arteries are too small. That means his heart has to work harder. Because of this, the right side of his heart is starting to fail. He needs life-saving surgery to decrease the pressure inside his heart.

“Ten years ago, his condition would have been a death sentence for a kid. It’s such a unique procedure that as far as we can tell, there’s only one team in the country that can do it. It’s the team that’s been developing it at Stanford University, working at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. They’ve preliminarily accepted him as a patient. According to the literature, they only do about two or three a year.”

Owen will visit his cardiologist later this week for an echocardiogram and EKG, and for a discussion about the family’s planned trip to California for surgery.

“This year has been pretty hectic for all of us. While he’s working, I stay home and take care of the kids, including homeschooling Emma. I’ve always put them before me. It’s always been about them. During this rollercoaster ride, emotionally, I’ve fallen apart at times. But I don’t worry about me until the very end. I make sure he’s OK, he’s OK and she’s OK. When you’re facing something like this as a family, I think you just learn to prioritize.”

— Blanca Aguilar Bobo and Blake Bobo

The family needs help with costs associated with Owen’s care that their insurance doesn’t cover. Check their GoFundMe page to learn more about their journey and how you can help.

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• They rely on faith, family, friends and fight

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“When I was little, all the other kids would run around at recess like kids do. But I couldn’t keep up with them. That’s when I remember feeling different.

“I was born with an enlarged heart and a heart murmur. I’ve been taking special medicine since I was young.

“Then one day in my junior year of high school, I was walking up the stairs and feeling really, really fatigued. I got to my class and I was going to my seat. The next thing I know, I was waking up and the ambulance was there. It was pretty scary because I didn’t know what happened. They told me that I passed out and I was having a seizure.

“They implanted a little machine in my heart called an LVAD (left ventricular assist device) to help pump blood to the rest of my body. The doctors told me and my parents that it wasn’t a permanent solution. At some point, I would need a heart transplant.

“So about eight months later, in February 2016, they put me on the transplant list. They told me it could take months to maybe even a year. But because I already had the LVAD and I was really at risk, I was near the top of the list.

“It was on a weekend about a month later when they called and said they had a heart for me. Luckily, the transplant was a success. My body took well to the new heart and there weren’t any problems.

“I’m doing well today. I can do most everything pretty normal, except eat certain foods that interfere with my medicine. But I feel very fortunate.

“I’m lucky to have gotten a heart so fast. It came from a girl about my age who lived in the El Paso area. I know her name. I met her family.

“In my mind, I thank the person who had to pass away for me to get her heart. It’s sad for her and her family. But for me, it means I can live my life. It’s weird to think about having someone else’s heart in my body. It’s random when it happens, but sometimes I feel like someone else is in there. Someone else is part of me.”

— Brian Parra

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“I have run 25 marathons and 76 ultra-marathons. As of Jan. 1, including all my races and training, I have run 30,875 miles. But it’s not the long distance that kills you. It’s the short distance.

“I was entered in a 3,000-meter race on June 9, 2012, at Rice University. I had no idea that anything was wrong with me. In January, I had won a U.S.A. Track and Field 100-kilometer race for my age. In February, I did the Rocky Raccoon 100-Mile Trail Run at Huntsville State Park. In March, I won a U.S.A. Track and Field 50-mile mountain race. In April, I ran the Relay for Life here in Baytown. In May, I ran in the Boxrox Marathon in central Texas in 95 degrees on rugged trails. So I survived all of that.

“Then June 9 came, and I was lined up for 3,000 meters. I ran through the finish, then I started walking and cooling down. I don’t remember anything that happened after that. Nothing. I had collapsed and died. My heart was not beating for up to 50 minutes, is what the doctor said.

“John Bryant, a friend of mine on our ExxonMobil track team, was there within one minute to begin doing CPR. He continued until Station 33 arrived from Houston, and they used the paddles to get my heart beating again. My wife met me at the hospital. She felt my ankles and said there was a tiny, little heart beat there. That was about two hours later.

“The doctors decided to put me in a medical coma. By the sixth day, they disconnected the EEG monitor because there was no data coming out of it. On the seventh day, they asked my wife for permission to disconnect me from life support. What she said was, ‘If you do that, he’ll just be on his own.’ So they didn’t do it. And I woke up at 6 o’clock the very next morning.”

— Bob Botto, 67

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“I was working for Humble Oil (later Exxon) as a systems analyst, and I had been feeling fatigued. When I went to the doctor through my health insurance he really set me up, you know, with improper directions and the wrong medications. By the time they sent me to Stanford Medical Center, I was feeling much weaker. I was being evaluated for a heart transplant, which I really didn’t want.

“They rented a deluxe apartment for me and I spent about five months there. The doctors had me doing exercises regularly and asked me to come see them once a week or so. There were a lot of bizarre tests, like how much pain can you tolerate before you start screaming. At one point they placed me in a centrifuge and spun me around, which I thought was strange. One thing they were trying to evaluate was if I got a new heart, how would my lungs function.

“As I continued to take their stress test, I kept improving. In the end, they decided that exercise and changes to my medication and diet were more acceptable than a heart transplant.

“Although I was feeling better, my new medications were going to interfere with work. The company wasn’t interested in accommodating some of what that would entail. So two months later, I took a medical disability retirement. I’ve been retired now for more than 20 years.”

— Sam Springer

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“He was born with a significant heart defect and has undergone three open-heart surgeries. Eventually he’s going to need a transplant, but right now they’re just trying to get this heart to last as long as it can.

“He’s been in the hospital a lot in his lifetime, but it hasn’t really fazed him. He’s out there playing with the best of them.

“You have to know God has a bigger plan. I think my son will do something extraordinary one day, and that’s why he’s here.”

— Carol Woodson

The post Lifelong heart problem ‘really hasn’t fazed him’ appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I had heart surgery about eight years ago and I just kept working and working and working. Then I had a stroke. Last May I started getting real sick. I couldn’t breathe, so they rushed me to the hospital.

“I had congestive heart failure. I was in the hospital two weeks, then I got sick again. I thought it was my last days. I even talked to a priest. I apologized to everybody I could think of who I had done something wrong to.

“Then they moved me to a hospital in Houston. When I woke up, it took me more than two weeks to actually realize what they had put inside of me. This mechanical pump goes into my heart and makes the blood flow all over my body. My kids were the ones who decided to have this done for me, because the doctors said I wasn’t going to make it. It’s heavy, but it’s what keeps me going.”

— Lupe Valencia

(Update: Lupe passed away in December 2017.)

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