Doctors, Kiwanians,
and Baby Andrew’s miracle

The Ohio District Kiwanis Foundation supports pediatric trauma centers and prevention programs, and a baby beats the odds—and lives

By Judi Bailey

“When I first saw him, he had 30-some tubes running in and out of his little body,” says Delores Cron about “Baby Andrew,” the poster child of the Ohio District Kiwanis Foundation’s pediatric trauma initiative. 

Even prior to his birth, Andrew hung out at hospitals. As his physicians worked to calculate the peak time to perform a planned cesarean section at Ohio’s Kettering Medical Center, an ultrasound picked up a problem with his heart. The doctors knew they had to act fast. Diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, newborn Andrew was transferred to Dayton Children’s Hospital.

Only half of his heart was developed. 

Andrew was then sent to the Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati, where his family was given three choices: do nothing, but Andrew would die; have their baby undergo a heart transplant, but there was no appropriate heart available; or have doctors try the Norwood procedure, a complicated reconstructive operation. They chose the Norwood.

Three surgeons performed a nine-hour open-heart emergency surgery to enlarge the heart’s left side and lengthen the aorta. They left Andrew’s chest open for three days in case they needed to go in again. 

As luck and good graces would have it, Baby Andrew went home in 10 days.

Across the globe, pediatric trauma kills 1 million children each year, according to Safe Kids Worldwide, a network to prevent childhood injuries. In most industrial nations, including the United States, accidental injury has surpassed disease to rank as the number one cause of death among children who are under the age of 15. In the US alone, 15,000 children die annually and another 50,000 suffer permanent disability as the result of trauma. 

“Pediatric trauma education, treatment, and prevention are the main focus of our foundation’s funding for the next five years,” says Alan Penn, executive director of the Ohio District Kiwanis Foundation (ODKF). Monies are pipelined directly into trauma centers and prevention programs. Fortunate for young patients like Baby Andrew, the ODKF has aligned itself with the major children’s hospitals throughout Ohio.

The initiative is supported by a number of clubs across the state. One, the Kiwanis Club of Bellevue, pledged US$15,000 to purchase pediatric equipment for the emergency room of Bellevue Hospital. Members raised $10,000, then requested funds from the foundation, which contributed $5,000. Delores Cron, wife of past district governor Mauri Cron, single-handedly raised $50,000 (though she’s quick to give the credit to Andrew).

During Mauri’s term as governor, Delores was playing tennis with a woman who began telling her the story of Baby Andrew.

 “She was his grandmother,” Delores says. “I became very tearful, especially when she told me that Andrew had been in the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. That’s where my son had been to have a tumor removed. He didn’t make it.” 

Delores didn’t go home to let grief run her over. Instead, she chose to support the Pediatric Trauma Initiative and encourage others in her district to do likewise. Showing a video of Andrew brought wet eyes to members of each club she visited, enlisting their hearts to the cause.

Trauma includes anything from medical maladies such as Baby Andrew’s to the chronic malnutrition in the West Bank and Gaza to severe burns in Saskatchewan. From the flooding in Indonesia and New Orleans to skateboarding accidents in Ottawa. From the massive violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to assault in the streets of Los Angeles.          

There are a number of considerations in childhood impairment: responses to medication are different as are reactions to even minor blood loss and the mending of still-developing bones. But the wounds go far beyond physical damage.

“Childhood trauma can have a very severe impact on a family,” says David Mooney, MD, from the Children’s Hospital in Boston, and a Norwood, New York, Kiwanian, “and can sometimes lead to divorce, especially if the child has ongoing problems.

“Acute stress response and post traumatic stress disorder show up in nearly 30 percent of kids admitted to a hospital for treatment of an injury. Our research shows the stress level of the parents is the most important contributor to stress in the child.”

David says the most severe injuries he sees at the hospital are from kids involved in car crashes and those struck by a vehicle. The best indicator of recovery, he notes, is quick action. Parents need to drive their child to the emergency room or as David advocates, call 9-1-1.

It was the fast thinking of Andrew’s physicians that saved him from a debilitating condition and from death.

“When he was three months old he had his second surgery,” Delores notes. “It lasted eight hours. Some of his upper veins were routed to his lungs. The goals of the first two surgeries were to help him get enough oxygen to his body. Whenever he fussed or cried, he’d turn blue.”

Andrew is not completely out of the woods yet. A third and likely final surgery will give him a synthetic valve, and doctors need to wait until he is three years old when his body has a better chance of accepting the new valve.

“Andrew’s at the lower end as far as weight and height are concerned,” says Delores, who saw him two months ago at an area bowling alley. “But his walking, crawling, and mental abilities are right on the money.”

“He is doing beautifully,” his mother says. “In December, his doctor told us that he is an example of the best case scenario. He is truly our blessing and a miracle.”

Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan says, “Only as we move closer to realizing the rights of all children will countries move closer in their goals of development and peace.”

Thanks to groups like Kiwanis, Baby Andrew just may lead the way. One can make a difference.

For more information, contact the Ohio District Kiwanis Foundation.