The Binsfeld Family

My son Marques was born with the congenital heart disease-transposition of the great vessels and had open heart surgery at 12 days old. He had routine check-ups to ensure that his heart was functioning properly. Over the last couple years Marques has had issues with breathing, chest pain, passing out and high blood pressure. In January of 2019, we were told that his aortic valve needed to be replaced due to it leaking too much. He had open heart surgery for valve replacement on 3-26-2019. The surgery lasted 13 hours and made for a slow start to his recovery. He spent 9 days in ICU at Children’s Minneapolis. Once we were home it seemed as if things were going well, but at his 5 weeks checkup he complained of shortness of breath. It was then that his cardiologist said they needed to have a stent placed in his pulmonary artery because it healed wrong. So, on 5-6-2019 he went in for surgery to place a stent. After 5 hours they determined that it was to dangerous to place a stent because it was too close to his coronary artery and couldn’t finish the procedure. We were then told that Marques needed to have another open-heart surgery to correct the blockage and narrowing in his pulmonary artery. His right side of his heart is under a lot of pressure and pushing fluid into his lungs, making it difficult to breath. So today, 5-13-2019, my son is in surgery for the 3rd time in 7 weeks. We have been told that we will be in the hospital for 3 weeks post-op before we are able to be sent home to finish the recovery. I have had to take an extended Unpaid leave from my job to care for my son.