Centre4Excellence

Carl was born in September 2005. He had fits at birth and went straight to PICU. Later, he was diagnosed with an incurable heart defect (HLHS). After about 2 weeks in intensive care, he has developed NEC and needed an urgent surgery. He had spent his first three months of life in intensive care unit where he underwent his first open heart surgery. When he was 8 months old he had another open-heart surgery, then he had another surgery on his bowels. When he was 4 years old he underwent another open-heart surgery, which was unsuccessful and resulted in him being on ECMO for a week. Soon after that, he was diagnosed with a congestive heart failure. When he was 8, he suffered prolonged tonic-clonic seizures that were followed by cardiac arrest. During his short life, Carl’s concentration of oxygen in blood was about 70% which also adversely affected his development. Carl started walking when he was 4 and talking when he was 5. He has had private tuitions and physio for many years, but he was really struggling with everything. I brought Carl to Florence in early 2016. Since then, Carl has been under her care. Without a doubt, he has done some amazing progress. For instance, he can read. Obviously, this is not the end and he will need many years to improve his cognitive skills, but he is definitely going in the right direction.