If you have been following the Patrick twins, Shea & Abby, here is an update. This is a Press Release from the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital dated April 29, 2005. I have also made a special Category (right column) which contains all my postings about them. Even I do not know these people personally, and never will, they are in my prayers and concerns.
Nashville (Tenn.) - Abigail and Shea Patrick are ready to return home to Alabama. The 10-month-old twins were born with a heart condition called cardiomyopathy that would likely have killed them had they not received heart transplants. Abby received a new heart on Nov. 16, 2004 and Shea got her transplant a few months later, on Feb. 25, at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
`We’ve been here since Oct. 21,` said Lisa Patrick, the twins’ mother. `We are very excited and are anticipating getting home to do the routine things we haven’t been able to do: like enjoy our home and the beautiful back yard. I’m excited about getting outside!`
Lisa’s plans to drive Abby and Shea down to their home in Huntsville, Ala., on Saturday, April 30. The twin’s father Arthur Patrick will follow with a truck full of the family’s belongings later that day.
The Patrick’s have weathered extremely difficult times. Abby was critically ill before her transplant, and two days after surgery suffered a setback that left her with some degree of brain damage. Both girls have been back in the hospital on an almost weekly basis with feeding issues or infections, complications that are part of their recovery from transplantation.
`Shea is beginning to crawl, but Abby still has a long way to go,` Arthur said.
`There is a little anxiety as we head home,` said Lisa. `We’ve adjusted to a routine here with the Children’s Hospital so close by. We’ll be very close to the Huntsville hospitals, but we’ll be two hours away from their primary doctors here at Vanderbilt Children’s. It will be a different routine.`
The Patricks have made many new friends here in Nashville, from individuals and church groups who have volunteered to help care for the babies, to the staff and faculty at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.
`I would especially like to thank the cardiology team, Dr. (Debra) Dodd and Dr. (Frank) Scholl, and the nurses in the critical care unit and on the sixth floor. They were so good to us,` Lisa said.
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