On Thanksgiving, We Help Give Life to Baby Alfred!!!

Home > Adam's Blog > Adam's Updates > On Thanksgiving, We Help Give Life to Baby Alfred!!! On Thanksgiving, We Help Give Life to Baby Alfred!!!

Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Published: November 24, 2021

Dear Patients and Friends,

On Thanksgiving, I am happy to share wonderful news with the HeartValveSurgery.com community!!!

Thanks to your extraordinary support, we just sponsored the life-saving heart surgery of Baby Alfred, a 7-month-old boy from Lagos, Nigeria. Alfred was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a dangerous, congenital heart defect that affects blood flow through the heart valves.

Baby Alfred’s Struggle

At just 3 weeks of age, Alfred’s parents noticed that he was not growing like other babies, he was having trouble nursing, and he was constantly short of breath. His parents also noticed that his lips would turn purple when he would cry. At 4 months of age, Alfred’s constant cries were inconsolable. He was becoming very frail.

Alfred’s parents took their son to a nearby hospital where the medical team diagnosed Alfred with a serious heart condition. He needed surgery as soon as possible. Since then, Alfred’s parents did their best to raise money from friends, family and churches to pay for his medical care.

Unfortunately, Alfred’s parents could not afford the surgery needed to save their son’s life.

Gift of Life Readies to Help Alfred

Thanks to Rob Raylman, the CEO of Gift of Life International, we learned about Alfred’s situation. As you may know, I am a huge fan of Gift of Life International. This amazing, non-profit organization has helped more than 40,000 children – from 80 countries across 5 continents – receive treatment for heart disease.

Here is a great video to help you learn about Gift of Life International.

Our Community Gets Involved!

After learning about Alfred’s urgent need for heart surgery, Gift of Life was ready to help.

However, Gift of Life needed a co-sponsor for Alfred’s operation.

On Thanksgiving… Thanks to the extraordinary people within the HeartValveSurgery.com community, I am happy to share that we just sponsored Alfred’s lifesaving cardiac surgery. His surgery is now being planned for January or February.

As Rob Raylman, the CEO of Gift of Life, shared with me, “With COVID-19, we are working in difficult times. Timing these procedures can be challenging given all the logistics required to facilitate Alfred’s travel and cardiac procedure.”

Needless to say, we will keep you updated as Alfred prepares for his operation.

“Thank You!” on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

I love everything about it – being with family, spending time with friends, the smells of food cooking, and the chill in the air. Most importantly, I appreciate the idea of taking time to stop and think about all that you are thankful for.

Thanks to your remarkable support of this community… This Thanksgiving has brought new meaning into my life.

I am so incredibly thankful for all the great people and members of this community – the patients, their families and friends, the doctors, the nurses, the physician assistants, the hospitals, the administrators, the medical companies and our sponsors – who have come together to support each other and now… Alfred.

(Side note: Tears of joy are falling down my face as I write this.)

On behalf of Alfred and his family, thank you! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank you for being such an important part of this community!!!

Written by Adam Pick
- Patient & Website Founder

Written by Adam Pick - Patient & Website Founder

Adam Pick is a heart valve patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. In 2006, Adam founded HeartValveSurgery.com to educate and empower patients. This award-winning website has helped over 10 million people fight heart valve disease. Adam has been featured by the American Heart Association and Medical News Today.