Januari 11, 2017
he is austin the youngest in the family there is a cantonese saying: "the youngest son tugs at the heartstrings." his parents have especially cherished him not because he is the youngest but because he has a congenital heart disease this year, austin is three years old ever since denise'pregnancy with austin
his parents arthur and denis have not been able to relax for a moment with austin, we found out that he had a congenital heart defect at 3 months of pregnancy we just couldn't believe it he (the doctor) said the test confirmed a definite heart defect... but i have never thought of giving him up.
denise had a due date for austin but austin was born a few days earlier on february 14, valentine's day the right side of austin's heart is underdeveloped and he depends mainly on the left side of the heart to function this child who has only half a heart has actually made his parents and two elder brothers learn to love more
that's me? that's you in the hospital the family is watching a video of austin from birth to his first birthday to denise and arthur although that was a very difficult year it was also full of grace i made a video of austin of his whole first year
we just went through so much and god carried us through it was a very overwhelming, very hard year for us but we put our faith in god i wanted austin to, when he grows up i want him to be able to see everything that he went through and how much god had… i mean god has had so much mercy on our family
and i wanted austin to see that when he grows older arthur and denise'family lives in dallas, texas arthur is a dentist and he met denise through work they married in 2005 and have three sons: ayden, seven alex, five and austin who is three
when denise was expecting her first two sons everything went well but with austin the result of a prenatal check-up shocked arthur and denise the doctor told my wife that he (the child) might have down syndrome a second test was done the second test diagnosed that in fact
he (the child) does not have down syndrome but has a heart defect with austin, we found out that he had a congenital heart defect at 3 months of pregnancy because it only happens… it's very rare for children to be born with a congenital heart defect but his is even more rare in the heart defect pretty much what he has
is a hypoplastic right ventricle and that means that his right side is severely underdeveloped the right side of his heart only the left side is functioning so he pretty much only has half of the heart austin's heart defect is that the right ventricle is underdeveloped this is a rare defect among congenital heart diseases with a prevalence rate of about one in 10,000
although they learned that the child inside the womb has serious defects and it would be difficult to take care of him in the future arthur and denise had never thought of giving up on him i have never thought about abandoning him i believe that when my child is sick has a problem we as parents should of course take care of him
arthur and denise have chosen life for austin a choice which requires a lot of courage because the road ahead of them is very tough austin was born under a precarious situation that denise could never forget we just didn’t know what to expect when he came out during labour every time i had a contraction he couldn't breathe
because of his heart his breathing would stop and that would just scare us so much and then when he was finally out he had to be rushed off to the nicu i could not hold him i could only hold him for like 10 seconds and they had to take him and they put him onto medicine to keep him alive
until he had his first heart surgery as soon as austin was born he was taken to the neonatal intensive care unit which was very painful for the new mother, denise as she missed austin at all times at that time, i felt very lonely because in the labour unit it was just me and no baby you know, and you always have baby
so when the nurse came in she was just taking care of me but i didn't want to be taken care of i want to take care of my baby three days after austin was born he already had to face his first surgery in a normal heart the left ventricle pumps oxygen-rich blood to the whole body through arteries
and the right ventricle pumps oxygen-poor blood to the lungs for gas exchange so that the oxygen-poor blood becomes oxygen rich the heart beats to ensure a constant circulation of blood in the body delivering enough oxygen supply to organs and the tissues because austin's right side of the heart
is underdeveloped doctors had to insert a catheter to his heart when he was four days old to pump more blood to the lungs it was great sorrow for denise and arthur to watch their newborn son undergo surgery hooked up to numerous tubes and even had to rely on a machine to breathe when he had his first surgery
it makes one sad to look at him because when he came out he had a breathing tube inserted meaning he relied on the machine to breathe his cries, his voice you couldn't even recognize his voice his mouth was very dry from use of the breathing machine he was in so much pain
when they took him off the pain meds they had to reduce the dosage slowly in order to wake up oh, i would never forget the look of pain on his face it was heartbreaking for parents after the first surgery austin had to be hospitalized for three weeks before returning home after surgery austin was very weak
a simple task for an ordinary baby such as feeding would take austin a lot of extra effort to do babies naturally can suck and drink right away but austin he did not have enough stamina to even feed so he had to learn the "suck, swallow, breathe" "suck, swallow, breathe" and he'd be like "suck, swallow, breathe"
(gasping for breath) after just two swallows it was very very, it just took a lot out of him when austin was six months old he had to face the second surgery at 6 months, because he had grown a little the smaller tube used when he was smaller had to be replaced by a bigger one
so he could get more oxygen for the second surgery a bigger catheter was inserted at almost the same site his second surgery was a lot more major the pictures that you see on the slide show a lot of times you see that he's just resting and that we are just looking at him but that's only part of the time a lot of the times it's him crying
out in pain, a lot and those are the times that we were busy comforting him giving him what he needs he cried a lot he was in a lot of pain but they had to kind of hold back on his pain meds so that he could wake up after surgery and every single time it's just so difficult
for his second surgery it wasn't until a couple weeks later that i was watching him in the hospital room and he's started waking up and started moving around started kicking, i am like: oh my god, i have my son back! on this day roque came all the way from toronto to visit arthur and denise'family
roque has known arthur for almost 20 years witnessed his joining the catholic church falling in love and building his own family roque and his late wife, helen used to be members of the legion of mary at the sacred heart of jesus parish in dallas they met arthur during a home visit and became friends helen encouraged arthur to join
the rite of christian initiation of adults (rcia) class to learn about the catholic faith arthur was a student in the rcia class of my late wife, helen it was interesting that i encountered arthur and became acquainted with him through my wife and her rcia class at that time my wife already had cancer
and could not go out often so she taught arthur on the phone the lesson took an hour i remember helen telling me that she often asked arthur questions deliberately to make sure that he was really listening to her on the other end of the line helen was not only arthur's rcia instructor but also his mentor
she was generous with her time although she had cancer she was still willing to take the time to explain to him the bible and the catholic faith her good example with her words and actions had touched arthur actually when i finally decided to become a catholic helen was a big influence
she had cancer i often wondered why even with cancer she would still ... because i knew that she wouldn't live very long why did she still spend time with me and talk to me when she had cancer? she would make some very good soup for me really was very nice to me i felt that helen was like a mother to me
it made me feel that the lord is very special to me after about six months to a year helen felt that he was ready to be baptized he was baptized at the sacred heart of jesus parish in dallas i was lucky enough to be his sponsor arthur is an introvert and it was not easy for him to find a girlfriend it appeared that god had plans for him
he originally studied electrical engineering but switched to dentistry denise,who came from a devout vietnamese catholic family happened to work at his dental office arthur was baptized before dating denise and it eventually led to a happy marriage i met arthur i came to the office working
and i met him through work and we were really good friends from the beginning i really liked him because he was just so down to earth we were really good friends for a while and then we started dating i had always said that i wouldn't date he's my first person i've ever date i've always said that i wouldn't ever
date anyone who was not catholic and i found out i mean after i met arthur actually he just became catholic a year before he met me so i have always felt that god prepared him for me through arthur denise became acquainted with helen
although their friendship had lasted only two years before helen died of cancer denise had learned from her that if we trust god and keep praying god will support us regardless of the difficulties we have to face in the memorial booklet for helen, denise wrote: through helen
god seemed to have prepared a lesson for arthur and denise in advance to help them face their challenges later on in vietnamese tradition engagement is a very important phase on this day in 2004 denise and arthur's families and friends gathered to witness the important moment of their engagement we are gathering at our home today
in the presence of our parents relatives and friends and especially before the altar of our almighty god to witness and to celebrate the engagement commitment of our children the children of the two families, le and luk we would like to respectfully accept the gifts that you have just presented to the family today and we would like now to present our daughter
for the engagement ceremony in their engagement ceremony denise's father, matthew said a special prayer for denise and arthur's future marriage i would like to invite everybody here with me to join in our prayer for this newly engaged in our prayer for them and for us dear god, we come before you
with gratitude with thanksgiving, from the bottom of our hearts we ask you god, through the intercession of our blessed mother to continue to watch over them to protect them, and guide them despite what the society teaches them help them to have the enduring love and the willingness to make sacrifice
for one another even at the hardest times in life since arthur and denise's wedding in 2005 life had been blissful austin's two elder brothers are healthy austin's sickness was the first big challenge in their marriage i do think that god uses the experience of austin to test our faith
to test our marriage.... i've never experienced anything as difficult as this i was very sick at heart it's so heart-wrenching to watch our son go through all that our focus is just only on austin at that time so my husband and i... i mean we didn't really pay attention to each other too much so our focus is only on austin
and so we did get on each other's nerves easily because we were just really really upset ...really really stressed out about our son every time austin had a surgery it was an extremely painful experience for denise and arthur denise realized that after the second surgery both of them had learned to find strength through prayers
their relationship has improved we realized we were mad at each other we picked on each other on the small things only because we were very stressed out about our son whom we love so much and we reminded ourselves that we love each other so much god has blessed us so much with this little son, i mean with three precious sons ...
we need to support each other and not forget about each other and pray together and i've prayed for my husband's faith to be stronger throughout all this too as they were accompanying this child in the past few years i think this couple has grown not only emotionally but has also learned how to care for the family
they know they have to cherish this child more but how? they really don't know after these few years regardless of their arguments this child has helped them grow emotionally and build a healthy family for arthur
he used to believe that hard work would definitely bring about a desirable outcome but austin's illness has changed his views completely in fact, i have learned a lot from this experience i have been very lucky in life good things come naturally to me i used to feel that if i work hard anything can be achieved
but in fact after my (youngest) son's birth i realized that many things are beyond my control austin made arthur learn the most important lesson: cherish those around you my first two sons are very healthy so i never cherish every moment with them because i often think they will have a lot of time ahead. but with austin
i have learned that every moment can be the last with my first two sons they would cry at night when they were small sometimes i was upset because they were often crying and we were tired but after austin was born
when he cried or in a tantrum i never got angry i even felt very happy to be able to take care of him to help him because i felt that every moment could be our last moment together until now, austin's congenital heart defect has no cure arthur and denise have no idea how long
they would have austin with them his doctor told us that he could have a heart attack any time because half of his heart has not developed he said he did not know the life expectancy for people like him because the heart is weak so it may fail any time in his daily life
he is fatigued all the time because he doesn't get enough oxygen in his body and that's something that he would always have to deal with he tries to keep up with his brothers but run round and round the house and he is out of breath we have to watch him because his lips would get bluish in color
and so we always have to be vigilant about that his oxygen levels are always very low and we have to watch out with germs for him when he gets sick it's really sick you know arthur and i, with him we relax most of the time but i would say 20% of the time we are always worried we are always on our tippy toes with him always
there is never a time that i can really relax we do not know sometimes when he is sleeping or sitting, reading or playing ball a problem may come up any time there may be a sudden heart failure although austin has heart disease denise, arthur and his two brothers are convinced
that austin is a precious gift from god he has brought a lot of joy which filled the whole family with love they love their younger brother for some children the older child may sometimes hit the younger one but it never happens with my two sons they never bully their younger brother my second son
alex said he wanted to become a cardiologist so that he could cure austin's heart disease in the future austin, he changed our lives so much our hearts are filled with such gratitude for this little one such gratitude to god for this little one and my relationship with jesus christ
has definitely grown stronger this summer, austin will undergo the third surgery to channel the oxygen-poor blood to the lungs directly bypassing the right ventricle doctors hope that the surgery would improve the oxygen level in austin's body after the previous two surgeries how do denise and arthur feel about the upcoming surgery?
there at the hospital i hate being in the hospital just so much anxiety, so much stress very heartbreaking to see our son go through so much pain tubes everywhere i mean his chest is open he is totally not himself very much dread it
i am very worried before or after surgery doctors often tell us that children with heart disease might have a problem any time it is not that after surgery the patient will be fine for 10 or 20 years he said it is not like that a problem can occur any time
sometimes children die in their sleep we are not only worried about his surgery even after his surgery the doctor said he could not tell when problems may recur he said if austin's heart failed again he would need a heart transplant this is the only alternative after the third surgery is completed
saint paul said in his letters: "faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen." although arthur and denise cannot see if austin's illness can be cured in the future they believe that through perseverance in prayer god will listen and watch over their family i hope you will pray for their child of course, i will do the same
i believe prayer is very powerful and will enable this family and this child to feel that we are care about him and love him the path they have to take regardless of the circumstances they will gladly accept i am afraid of a lot of things i am afraid that we would lose him
i am afraid that he may not live a long life but you know those things that's human to feel those things but i have faith that god will take care of it no matter what it is god will take care of it all
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