meet timothy

Our 6th annual Pennsylvania Golf Outing is about 6 weeks away - Friday July 27th!
We are honoring heart warrior Timothy Wooldridge and family from Bellevue, Pennsylvania.
Please visit our website to register!
Or email rebecca.perrotto@haydensheart.org to sponsor or support this event!

Meet Timothy....
Timothy Wooldridge was diagnosed prenatally with a severe congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. It was an incredibly scary time for our family. I was put on bed rest at 30 weeks because of my risks for pre-term labor and his heart defect made it more important than ever for him to be born full term. At 37 weeks Timmy was born and was immediately transferred to the CICU at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. It would be three days before I could be reunited with him and then he had his first open heart surgery, the Norwood procedure, at only four days old.

The first three months of his life were spent between the step down cardiac unit and the CICU and he had a tracheostomy and g-tube and nissen surgery in that time. At three months old Timmy had his second open heart surgery, the Glenn procedure. The hope was that his heart function would improve after this surgery and that he would be able to come home for the first time. This was not the case, however, and he became sicker and sicker. Our family had prepared for the prospect of spending three to four months in the hospital, but after being maxed out on three different heart medications, being put on a fourth IV heart medication, and maxed out on diuretics we knew that a heart transplant was his only way home.

This time in our lives was incredibly difficult. Timothy is the youngest of three and his older siblings had to go through many days and nights without one or both of their parents. For a time there was no end in sight, which is why the day we received the call that a heart was being offered was the most surreal day of my life. Receiving the gift of life was only the start of the next chapter in our family. There were still repairs to our home and supplies we needed to purchase to make it safe for Timmy to come home for the very first time when he was nine months old. Keeping Timmy healthy and out of the hospital as much as we can is a daunting task and requires constant vigilance and keeping supplies that insurance does not cover in stock at home and keeping up with the repairs that come with living in an old house.