Tetralogy of Fallot

I didn't get any work done this weekend, which usually bothers me if I can't get at least an hour or two in of work.

What I was doing instead.....

I am the treasury of my communities Adult softball League. Our secretary came to our board meeting over two weeks ago asking us if we would be willing to assist in a fundraising softball tournament for this young man in our community named Noah.

We had agreed of course because the team I am a part of loves to get out there and help as much as possible. Fundraisers are normal for us, and so it is typical that we go in and do our best to help out.

We had decided to purchase all of the items needed for the concession stand, work the concession for the entire tournament, and once over we would donate all the proceeds to the cause for this young man.

It turned out that my team of board members ended up doing a lot of the planning and work that goes into making sure this tournament could be pulled off. It can be a little frustrating when you have only two weeks to prepare for something so big.

Over the course of the past few weeks and over the weekend, my entire board was out there assisting with everything we could, which is typical for us, however in return, this child we were there for was also assisting us.

I had the honor of having this young man come into the concession and ask if there was anything he could do to help. I ended up spending a lot of time getting to know this boy and his mother, which really isn't normal for any of us on our league.

By 3 pm yesterday afternoon, some of us were pretty excited that it was almost over and we could go home and rest. At the end, is when we found out that had it not been for us, and other volunteers that helped get this tournament going, this young man who worked with me in the concession stand would not be able to get the surgery he needs to survive.

The surgery alone is a risk, however without it, this young man would not live to see his next birthday. He has a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot which results in low oxygenation of blood due to the mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood in the left ventricle via the ventricular septal defect and preferential flow of the mixed blood from both ventricle through the aorta because of the obstruction to flow trough the pulmonary valve.

Basically, without this surgery coming up, his heart will fail.

All I can say is, all of us are now personally involved with this young man and by the end it became very emotional to say the least. Below is a photo of myself, my friend and our secretary Marcia (red shirt), Noah, and his Mom Traycee.

This will be one of those weekends I will never forget and will now continue to help fight for this cause for this young man and others like him.

P.S. The mother of Noah's best friend, it was her team who won the tournament. His friend passed away just this last year from the same defect.