Corey Chambers Real Estate Newsletter Newsletter February 2023 | The SoCal Home

LOVE REMEDIES A MULTITUDE OF WRONGS

February, as you know, brings in Valentine’s Day. A holiday where many of us scramble to make sure those close to us KNOW we love them! After all – Love is a many splendid thing. While Love for our family and friends is the most important, I think it’s also essential to express my heartfelt desire for helping people find a home where their heart is.

My favorite love description is: Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. I could go on with all kinds of examples like – “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself,” even go all business-like and say “ how much we love your referrals” and more.

But, the point is we do love helping people sell and buy real estate. And those people say we are good at it!

Please know that my team and I are eager to help anyone you know wanting to make a move. So much so that we are willing to make an offer that your referrals will LOVE – AND – the Kids at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles will love too.

Your referrals help the kids!

Go Serve Big!!! Investing In Our Southern Californian Kids

If you or a friend are thinking about selling, make sure to choose a real estate company you can trust! A real estate company with experience, proven results and a give-back philosophy!

AND REMEMBER… Your referrals help the Kids…

We are on a mission to raise $25,000 for CHLA. We do this by donating a portion of our income from homes we sell. As you know, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles does great work in helping kids fight through and survive nasty life-threatening diseases like cancer, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia and others. They also lead the way in helping kids come back from spinal cord injuries as well as early diagnosis of autism. Last year alone, Children’s helped over 1,000,000 kids right here in Los Angeles. BUT, Children’s relies on sponsorships and donations to provide their elite level of care, and to keep families’ expenses to a minimum. So YOUR REFERRALS REALLY DO HELP THE KIDS…

Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to my real estate sales team?

Not only will they benefit from our award-winning service, but you can rest assured we are also donating to a very worthy cause.

Go Serve Big!!! Investing in the Children of Los Angeles.

A Real Estate Company that Gives Back!

Children’s Hospital LA leads the way in serving kids one patient at a time.

We are still boldly on a mission to raise $25,000 for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, and we are making progress! We do this by donating to them a portion of our income from homes we sell. As you know, CHLA does AMAZING work in helping kids fight through and survive nasty diseases like cancer, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, and others. They also lead the way in many other fields.

They can provide this care and keep patient costs to a minimum due to donations and sponsorships. We are proud to support the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles!

As in the attached story, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles provides the best pediatric medical care available anywhere in the country. To do that, CHLA needs donations to continue its leading-edge care. We proudly donate a portion of our income from real estate sales to CHLA to help them continue serving the needs of those who most need it in our Los Angeles!

Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to our real estate sales team? Not only will they benefit from our award-winning real estate service, but a very worthy cause will also benefit as well. To refer anyone considering buying or selling a home just give me a call or pass on my number. 213-880-9910.

Thank you in advance for your referrals!

You and your referrals mean more than ever to my team and me. As we move forward thru this winter, please know we are extremely thankful for you and you being a special part of our business.

Go Serve Big!!! — Corey Chambers

Entar® Real Estate and Investment Technologies!

P.S. I copied and pasted the story below from the CHLA website. It better tells the story of the work they are doing.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

As a leading charitable hospital, CHLA depends on sponsorships and donations to continue its leading-edge service. We proudly donate a portion of our income from real estate sales to CHLA to help them continue serving the needs of those who most need it in Los Angeles!

A real estate company with experience, proven results and a give-back philosophy!

Over the years of helping many families sell their homes and/or buy another, we have met some wonderful, loving, caring people. People like you! So your referrals can rest assured that, not only will they get the award-winning service we are known for and the guarantee to back it up, but that a solid portion of the income we receive will go toward helping the kids.

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members considering making a move:

You can go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com and enter their contact info online or forward the link to someone you know considering a move.

Of course you can always call me direct as well at 213-880-9910

Why I support Childrenʼs Hospital Los Angeles

I grew up right here in the Greater Los Angeles Area, born in Los Angeles County at St. Francis Hospital. I remember when I first heard about a young person close to our family suffering from a nasty disease and getting treated for that at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. It was then that I began to pay closer attention to the work they do at that hospital. Since then, I have learned that it is a collection of hard-working health care professionals, most making their home right here in the Los Angeles area, all coming together for a common cause. That cause is to help young people overcome unfortunate health issues that life sometimes throws our way. Being a Los Angeles Area California native, I take pride in supporting in a way that I can do the good work these people do at Children’s. My team rallies around our annual goal of raising money and donating portions of our income to help Children’s in their quest to heal young people when they need healing. My team and I are committed to providing outstanding results for buyers and sellers referred to us by our past clients. I have discovered that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shares a similar commitment to their patients. And since their services survive on sponsorships and donations, we are happy to contribute and proud to support them.

Sincerely,

Corey Chambers

Ace High School Pitcher Thriving Despite Hydrocephalus

Undeterred by complications caused by a neurological disorder, Jaykob has risen to baseball stardom.

By Jeff Weinstock

Standing atop the mound in the seventh and final inning, Jaykob took in the situation at hand, like an artist backing off from his work to appraise his progress. He was just a brushstroke short of completing his masterpiece. Metaphors aside, he was one out away from a no-hitter.

Far from nervous, he felt serene. He knew real pressure, and this wasn’t it. This was his second bite at a no-hitter; he got close earlier in the season. “I had one going into the fifth inning and I couldn’t finish it,” he says.

He was on the brink here—one last out.

“Of course, I wanted to finish it, but even if it didn’t happen, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I still would be fine. I know it’s not going to be the worst thing I’ll go through, and it might not be the worst thing I’ve gone through already.”

He pauses on that before adding, “I feel that way about a lot of things.”

‘If he were an adult, he’d already be dead’

Even 17 years afterward, getting the news of her newborn son’s brain hemorrhage replays in Tracy’s mind.

“I was holding Jaykob and we were standing in the corridor of the hospital looking at a screen,” she says. “My husband Dustin is next to me with his arm around us, and the doctor’s words—not the best choice, by any means—he said, ‘This is a stage-3 brain bleed. If he were an adult, he’d already be dead.’ I can still picture it like I was standing right there.”

Shortly after, on Halloween 2005, Jaykob, 2 weeks old, was transferred to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where doctors searched for any abnormality that could have caused the bleed, which generally is associated with preemies, but found none. Jaykob was born at full term.

“To this day, 17 years later,” Tracy says, “we have zero answers as to why it happened.”

The cause of the bleed was of less consequence than the effect of it. The bleeding, and the scarring that resulted from it, obstructed the flow of the vital cerebrospinal fluid, causing it to accumulate in the ventricles of Jaykob’s brain, where it is produced—a condition called hydrocephalus. The fluid normally circulates back into the bloodstream, but if it gets jammed up in the ventricles, it puts pressure on the brain that the patient experiences as an extreme headache.

Jaykob exhibited one of the telltale signs of the disorder: sunset eyes, called so because of how they cast downward from the stress being applied to the brain.

The neurosurgery team at CHLA placed a catheter in the brain’s ventricles—a device called a shunt—to drain off the excess fluid and send it down to the abdomen, where it could be reabsorbed into the blood. “Like it ordinarily would,” CHLA neurosurgeon Gordon McComb, MD, says. “But this is sort of a detour.”

Hydro headaches

Baby Jaykob in November 2005, after his initial surgery to install a shunt in his brain

That is where Jaykob’s condition remains, with a shunt continuing to draw off the cerebrospinal fluid so that it doesn’t build up in the ventricles.

Hydrocephalus can’t be cured, only managed, and the management of Jaykob’s case has been plagued by hardware trouble, most often due to the same issue with scar tissue growing on the shunt and blocking the flow of spinal fluid. According to his mom, in his 17 years, Jaykob has needed shunt replacement surgery a dozen times.

“The main problem is that the tissue grows into the catheter,” says Dr. McComb, Chief Emeritus of CHLA’s Division of Neurosurgery and Jaykob’s neurosurgeon through October 2021. Once that happens, the catheter is clogged and excess fluid collects.

How does Jaykob know when the shunt is failing? The pressure bearing down on his brain gets translated into severe “hydro headaches,” as Tracy calls them, distinguished from conventional headaches by their resistance to pain relievers.

“He could do the whole Tylenol, Motrin every few hours,” she says. “Nothing will help.”

The headaches are infrequent, often many months apart, but when one comes, it forces Jaykob to determine whether it’s a standard headache that will end, or a hydro headache that indicates the shunt is compromised, necessitating a trip to the hospital. It’s an agonizing decision that usually comes down to the duration of the headache.

“They don’t go away,” Tracy says. “Watching him have to make that decision—sorry, I’m going to get emotional now. He’s 17. OK, you’re hurting. The headache’s there. It’s been there for X amount of days. Are you at a point where you can still function in your life like normal? Go to baseball practice, go to school, get your homework done? When you’re not, that’s when we have to go to the hospital, because if you can’t live your life like you normally would, that’s not OK.”

An infection found

The family (from left): Father Dustin, brother Kaysen, mother Tracy, and Jaykob

The most recent episode in October 2021 was the worst of them, Tracy says. After nine days of a headache that wouldn’t break, Jaykob went into CHLA on his birthday, Oct. 14.

At the hospital, a nuclear medicine study, neatly called a shuntogram, which injects dye into the shunt to test the flow, indicated an obstruction. The shunt was replaced, but the headache returned days afterward, forcing Jaykob back to CHLA. After a new shunt was installed, a sample of Jaykob’s cerebrospinal fluid collected during the procedure came back positive for bacterial infection.

“That entire series of events was really unexpected,” says neurosurgeon Jason Chu, MD, who had just taken over Jaykob’s case from Dr. McComb.

“He didn’t have any of the other symptoms of shunt infections, including fever, neck stiffness, vomiting, malaise. His symptoms were similar to his previous shunt malfunctions. At that point, the suspicion for infection was pretty low.”

A three-week hospital stay ensued. To keep the cerebrospinal fluid flowing while the infection resolved, the shunt had to be externalized. It rested on an IV pole and connected to Jaykob’s brain through a tube inserted into the crown of his head. It was a lot to tolerate for a 16^th birthday.

“His whole thing is, ‘I’m done hurting,’” Tracy says. “’I just want the headache gone. I know if I go in and I have surgery, I’m going to wake up and I’m going to feel better and I can move on with my life.’ And that’s how he goes about it.”

Dreaming big

A slow roller! Past the pitcher! Looks like trouble! The shortstop charges! Picks it up! Throws … got him!

Tracy has a video of the last out of her son’s no-hitter, but narration is all we can provide. You’ll have to conjure up the images on your own.

Jaykob has shined on the baseball field for years. A star pitcher, he was named first-team All-League last year as a sophomore and was chosen for the Western San Gabriel Valley All-Area team.

“My big dream is to make it to the major leagues, play pro ball, but realistically, hopefully play college ball,” he says. “Then after college, see where it goes from there.”

He’ll continue to live with the effects of hydrocephalus. The headaches disrupt but don’t derail him. “When I was younger the pain was a lot worse. Most of the time it’s more of a distraction, but when I don’t feel it, I’m just living my normal life.”

Fortunately, he has not experienced the cognitive damage that the condition often causes. Dr. Chu says Jaykob’s bleed as an infant likely stayed within the ventricles.

“The rest of the brain was spared,” he says. “When the bleeding extends outside the ventricles and into the meat of the brain, the brain gets injured. Jaykob’s done great in his overall growth and development. If you met him, you wouldn’t be able to tell he has hydrocephalus and a shunt.”

Jaykob flourishes in school. Even after last year’s hospitalization forced him to miss several weeks, he caught right up. “For the most part, except for teenage laziness, he is at the top of his class,” Tracy says.

*Six-year-old Jaykob eyes his next strikeout*!

She and her husband have been able to move forward as well—not all, but some. They can now get through the day without looming fear. “In the back of my head,” she says, “I’m always wondering, ‘How does he feel?’ But I’m not going to bug him every single day. We just roll with, OK, today’s a good day, and keep going.”

A New Treatment for Hydrocephalus

Shunts have been used to treat hydrocephalus for the past 70 years, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles neurosurgeon Jason Chu, MD, says. But as Jaykob’s case illustrates, they are an imperfect solution and vulnerable to malfunction.

“A lot of patients do really well with them, but his story highlights the double-edged sword that shunts present,” Dr. Chu says.

Namely, they are a device with parts, and the only way to treat a defective shunt part is with an operation.

Dr. Chu says that CHLA neurosurgeons are trained in a second, newer treatment for hydrocephalus that avoids a shunt. Called endoscopic third ventriculostomy with choroid plexus cauterization, or ETV+CPC, it’s a two-part operation that creates an alternate pathway—“a bypass channel,” Dr. Chu says—for obstructed spinal fluid to escape the ventricles and find its normal passageway through the brain. In the second part of the surgery, the surgeon cauterizes the choroid plexus, the tissue that generates cerebrospinal fluid, reducing the amount of fluid produced as well as improving the chances the ETV procedure will succeed.

CHLA is at the forefront of research into ETV+CPC as part of a clinical trial funded by the Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network (HCRN), a network of 14 pediatric neurosurgery centers that include Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The trial, titled “Endoscopic Versus Shunt Treatment of Hydrocephalus in Infants,” is evaluating the effectiveness of shunts versus ETV-CPC in infants with hydrocephalus.

“We know that certain types of hydrocephalus can be treated with ETV while others don’t respond as well,” Dr. Chu says. One of the goals of the trial is to find out which types are best suited for this newer option.

“It’s still something we’re studying and trying to understand,” Dr. Chu says. “If we’re able to treat hydrocephalus without needing a shunt, there are a lot of benefits to that.

He then takes a line from fellow CHLA neurosurgeon Gordon McComb, MD. “As Dr. McComb says, you can’t have trouble with your shunt if you don’t have a shunt.”

How You Can Help

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates, or family members considering making a move: www.ReferralsHelpKids.com or call Corey at 213-880-9910

Jaykob hurls a pitch for his high school team

Copyright © This free information provided courtesy L.A. Loft Blog with information provided by Corey Chambers, Broker, DRE 01889449; We are not associated with the seller, homeowner’s association or developer. For more information, contact 213-880-9910 or visit LALoftBlog.com Licensed in California. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Properties subject to prior sale or rental. This is not a solicitation if buyer or seller is already under contract with another broker.

January 1, 2023January 3, 2023

Corey Chambers Real Estate Newsletter January 2023 | The SoCal Home

Exciting New Year’s Resolution… | PDF

As a fellow lover of the holidays, I wanted to write you this personal letter and share some exciting news for the New Year. Most people Establish New Year’s resolutions but fall short of keeping them for whatever reason. So each year, I highlight an excellent book that helped my team improve our follow-through on achieving important goals. I wanted to share with you ATOMIC HABITS BY JAMES CLEAR. He has found that setting bold goals starts with writing them down with due dates.

Some of your friends, neighbors, associates, or relatives may have a New Year’s resolution to make a move. Well – we can help them with that, help you and help the kids at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles at the same time.

Your referrals help the kids!

Go Serve Big!!! Investing In Our Southern Californian Kids

If you or a friend are thinking about selling, make sure to choose a real estate company you can trust! A real estate company with experience, proven results and a give-back philosophy!

For the month of January, anyone you know wanting to sell their house — I will guarantee the sale of their home for 100% of Market Value, or I’ll Pay the Difference.*

They outline the goals, I agree to deliver. If I don’t, I pay the penalty. Who do you know considering selling their home that would benefit from that kind of peace of mind? Just let me know, and we’ll give them a call!

AND REMEMBER… Your referrals help the Kids…

Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to my real estate sales team?

Not only will they benefit from our award-winning service, but you can rest assured we are also donating to a very worthy cause.

Go Serve Big!!! Investing in the Children of Los Angeles.

A Real Estate Company that Gives Back!

Children’s Hospital LA leads the way in serving kids one patient at a time.

We are still boldly on a mission to raise $25,000 for Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, and we are making progress! We donate to them a portion of our income from homes we sell. As you know, CHLA does AMAZING work in helping kids fight through and survive nasty diseases like cancer, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, and others. They also lead the way in many other fields.

They can provide this care and keep patient costs to a minimum due to donations and sponsorships. We are proud to support the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles!

Who do you know considering buying or selling a home you could refer to our real estate sales team? Not only will they benefit from our award-winning real estate service, but a very worthy cause will also benefit as well. To refer anyone considering buying or selling a home, just give me a call or pass on my number. 213-880-9910.

Thank you in advance for your referrals!

You and your referrals mean more than ever to my team and me. As we move forward thru this winter, please know we are extremely thankful for you and you being a special part of our business.

Go Serve Big!!! — Corey Chambers

Your Home Sold Guaranteed!

P.S. I copied and pasted the story below from the CHLA website. It better tells the story of the work they are doing.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

A real estate company with experience, proven results and a give-back philosophy!

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates or family members considering making a move:

You can go to www.ReferralsHelpKids.com and enter their contact info online or forward the link to someone you know considering a move.

Of course, you can always call me direct as well at 213-880-9910

Why I support Childrenʼs Hospital, Los Angeles

I grew up right here in the Greater Los Angeles Area, born in Los Angeles County at St. Francis Hospital. I remember when I first heard about a young person close to our family suffering from a nasty disease and getting treated for that at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. It was then that I began to pay closer attention to the work they do at that hospital. Since then, I have learned that it is a collection of hard-working healthcare professionals, most making their home right here in the Los Angeles area, all coming together for a common cause. That cause is to help young people overcome unfortunate health issues that life sometimes throws our way. Being a Los Angeles Area California native, I take pride in supporting in a way that I can do the good work these people do at Children’s. My team rallies around our annual goal of raising money and donating portions of our income to help Children’s in their quest to heal young people when they need healing. My team and I are committed to providing outstanding results for buyers and sellers referred to us by our past clients. I have discovered that Children’s Hospital Los Angeles shares a similar commitment to their patients. And since their services survive on sponsorships and donations, we are happy to contribute and proud to support them.

Sincerely,

Corey Chambers, Broker

*seller and Corey must agree on price and time of possession. CalDRE#01889449

At birth, it seemed Jaxon’s only hope was a procedure that would leave him with “half a heart.” But once in surgery, everything changed.

Born with Ebstein’s Anomaly, Jaxon Now Has a Normal Heart

By Katie Sweeney

Breann’s phone doesn’t usually ring at 7 in the morning. So when it did—and she saw it was her OB-GYN—she had a bad feeling. She was pregnant, and she had gone for her 20-week ultrasound the day before. Her doctor did not have good news. “She said something ‘looked off’ on the ultrasound,” Breann remembers. “And it could be nothing—but it could be something.” Two weeks later, she and her husband, Daniel, were sitting in a pediatric cardiologist’s office, hearing the most devastating news they could imagine. Their unborn baby had Ebstein’s anomaly, a heart defect where the tricuspid valve does not form properly—preventing normal blood flow into the right side of his heart. “He told us most of these babies don’t even make it to delivery,” Breann says. “And if they do, their lifespan isn’t very long and their quality of life is not good.” They left the appointment in a daze. “What do we do now?” Daniel remembers thinking. “How the heck do we proceed? Because if there was even a 1% chance for our baby, we wanted to go for it.”

Finding Hope

Fortunately, the doctor who had referred them to the cardiologist called later that day and urged them to get a second opinion. “He told us he could send us anywhere we wanted to go,” Daniel says. “He mentioned Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.” The couple began doing research and quickly decided on CHLA. It was a long drive but doable—80 miles from their Hesperia home. Most importantly, they liked that the hospital has a Heart Institute that specializes in treating babies and children with the most complex congenital heart defects. Soon, they were meeting with CHLA Cardiologist Jon Detterich, MD. Dr. Detterich confirmed Ebstein’s anomaly diagnosis and the risk that the baby would not make it to delivery. But there was also hope. Their baby would most likely need a surgery called the Starnes procedure, which essentially closes off the malfunctioning right side of the heart. A baby’s circulation is rerouted through a series of three surgeries so that the left side of the heart can do all the work—pumping blood to the body and the lungs. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is one of only a few centers in the country to perform this lifesaving procedure, which was developed 30 years ago by Vaughn Starnes, MD, co-director of CHLA’s Heart Institute.“The second we met with Dr. Detterich, we knew this was where we wanted to be,” Daniel says. “We were scared, but we felt like we had a plan.” Now, they just had to get through the rest of the pregnancy. “It was a roller coaster,” Breann says. “Some days, I’d be poking my belly, going, ‘Are you still alive in there? Why haven’t you kicked? Kick! Kick!’ Because at every appointment, every ultrasound, we didn’t know if he would be gone.”

A Severe Case

On Feb. 13, 2018, Jaxon arrived—a full-term baby weighing in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces. The first good sign? He was breathing. He was quickly transported to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) confirmed that his tricuspid valve had not developed normally and was in the wrong position. In addition, his right ventricle—which pumps blood to the lungs—was much smaller than normal, while the right atrium was too large. There is a spectrum of Ebstein’s anomaly,” Dr. Detterich explains. “Jaxon’s case was severe.” Doctors immediately started Jaxon on a medicine called prostaglandin E1 (PGE), which keeps open a special fetal blood vessel that normally closes shortly after birth. Keeping this vessel open allowed blood to flow to his lungs despite his abnormal valve. After about a week, with Jaxon’s lung pressures stable, the team decided to see if Jaxon’s heart could function without the medicine. If it could, he would not need surgery right away. But after just a few hours without PGE, his oxygen levels plummeted—a clear sign that his heart was not able to pump enough blood to his lungs. Doctors quickly restarted the medicine and began planning for the Starnes procedure. A few days later, on Feb. 26, 2018, Jaxon was wheeled off into the operating room. Breann—who had suddenly fallen ill the day before—was at home, anxiously glued to her phone. Daniel settled in for a long wait in the hospital, his mom by his side. The surgery was expected to take three hours.

But inside the operating room, things were not going according to plan.

A Mid-Surgery Decision

Dr. Starnes and fellow congenital heart surgeon Ram Subramanyan, MD, PhD, had prepared to close off the right side of Jaxon’s heart. But as Dr. Starnes studied Jaxon’s valve and ventricles, he paused. “In most of these newborns with severe Ebstein’s anomaly, there’s little to no valve leaflet tissue, and the right ventricle is very thinned out. It’s like a bag without much muscle function to it,” Dr. Starnes explains. “In that situation, there’s not much you can do besides the Starnes procedure.” But Jaxon’s case wasn’t fitting that mold. Dr. Starnes could see that there was more valve tissue than had been visible on the echocardiograms. That tissue was plastered to the heart wall, as is typical in Ebstein’s anomaly—but it was there. In addition, the right ventricle wasn’t as weak as it had appeared. “We felt that it could be capable of pumping blood to the lungs if there was a competent tricuspid valve,” Dr. Starnes adds. The two surgeons conferred. The Starnes procedure has been proven to provide superior outcomes in severe Ebstein’s anomaly. But in this case, Dr. Starnes felt it was possible to repair the valve—giving Jaxon a chance to live with a fully functioning heart. Dr. Subramanyan agreed. The surgeons decided on the spot to perform an advanced operation called the cone procedure—a surgery rarely done in newborns. They went to work, carefully separating the valve flaps from the heart wall and rotating them into a cone-shaped valve that could open and close. They also reattached the valve at the correct location in the heart. The procedure took less than an hour. Dr. Starnes headed out to talk to Daniel, who was startled to see him 90 minutes earlier than expected.

“He came out and said, ‘We fixed it,’” Daniel remembers. “I was like, what do you mean you fixed it? I was so surprised, I don’t even think I said thank you.” He called Breann. “We were both like, holy cow, what just happened?” Daniel says. “That was a miracle.”

A Ball of Energy

Jaxon’s parents weren’t the only ones surprised that his valve had been repaired. His cardiologists were astonished, too. “Most centers do not do this surgery in the newborn period,” Dr. Detterich says. “For our surgeons to make this change on the fly was pretty amazing.”

Jodie Votava-Smith, MD, who led Jaxon’s care for the first week of his life and has been his cardiologist ever since, was also astounded at the news. But a bigger question remained: Would the repair hold up? The answer was a resounding yes.

“He’s a normal boy,” says his mom. “He’s a ball of energy. You would never know he had surgery.” Now almost 5, the blonde, tow-headed preschooler loves zipping around on his scooter, swimming, playing with the family dog, having spirited arguments with his 8-year-old sister, Aubree and enthusiastically counting everything around him. “He’s a numbers guy,” Daniel says with a laugh. “He’ll be like, ‘Dad! There’s five of these!’” When Jaxon first came home from the hospital, he needed medication for a type of irregular heartbeat that is common in Ebstein’s anomaly. But after a few months, the condition resolved. Today, he takes no medications and has no restrictions. His yearly echocardiograms at CHLA show a normal heart. “We thought he was going to have to live with half a heart,” says Dr. Votava-Smith. “Instead, our surgeons fixed it to be a fully functioning, four-chambered heart. It’s a remarkable outcome.” Breann and Daniel want to express their gratitude to the entire Heart Institute team at CHLA. “I don’t know where else we could have gotten this level of care,” Breann says. “I am beyond thankful to all of his doctors, his nurses, everyone. They are like our family.”

How you can help:

Refer your friends, neighbors, associates, or family members who are considering making a move:

www.ReferralsHelpKids.com or call Corey at 213-880-9910

Story Courtesy Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles

Copyright © This free information provided courtesy L.A. Loft Blog with the information provided by Corey Chambers, Broker, DRE 01889449. We are not associated with the seller, homeowner’s association, or developer. For more information, contact 213-880-9910 or visit LALoftBlog.com, Licensed in California. All information provided is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and should be independently verified. Properties are subject to prior sale or rental. This is not a solicitation if the buyer or seller is already under contract with another broker.