11/07/2025
Today we had a conference with several doctors and surgeons at the University of Georgia who are working on Bennie’s case. They told us that after further study, they found that Bennie has two abnormalities in his heart. One is a long, thin, unusual vessel that was just an incidental finding and doesn’t seem to be having an impact on his heart. The other is a small vessel that connects from the left branch of his pulmonary artery to his aorta. Bennie is so teeny tiny that it’s really hard to see the edges of that connection to know if it’s having an impact. The good news is that his heart is only mildly affected by this abnormal vessel. So the plan is that we’ll wait 2-3 months and give Bennie time to grow before he returns for another echocardiogram to see if his heart has changed. If it has, we might go straight to surgery or do a diagnostic catheterization to better evaluate the vessel. They can’t do the catheterization now because Bennie’s heart is smaller than the probe!
In the meantime, we’ll be monitoring his sleeping respiratory rate and his exertion every day. It’s very unlikely he’ll go into heart failure in the next few months, but we will make sure we check for all the potential signs. Bennie has a lot of people rooting for him, the doctor said. The whole cardiology team is going to talk about his case next week and the radiologists have reached out to other experts in the medical community to make sure they are all on board with the decisions.
We sure wish we had clear cut answers today but we are glad that he is with a team so devoted to his care. How could they not love this perfect little guy?
