Zachary Vega

Zachary Oesch Vega was born on July 2, 2009 with Shone's Complex & Scimatar Syndrome, both congenital heart defects (CHDs). He had his first surgery at one week old at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles. The surgery was not to fix his heart, but to help him live with his condition. After two and a half months in the hospital we finally made it home. We moved to Maryland a month later to be close to family for his next surgery, and were able to spend four joyous months with Zach at home. He was such a joy, always smiling and happy. On January 12th we went to Children's National Hospital for his second surgery. We knew from the beginning it was high risk, but it had to be for him to continue to thrive. After two months in the cardiac intensive care unit, Zach was doing very well and we were making plans to take him home. Before we could get home his condition suddenly deteriorated and continued to worsen. On Sunday, April 4, 2010 we decided he had suffered enough and let him rest.

CHDs are the number one birth defect and the number one cause of death from a birth defect. One in every 125 babies born has something wrong with their heart. There are 35 known types of CHDs. CHDs can affect any family - they never go into remission, and have no cure.