Christopher is a 14 year old boy who was born with a CHD Congenital Heart Defect called Truncus Arteriosus he was 5 day's old when he had his first open heart surgery. His condition doesn't have a cure and requires multiple surgeries as he grows. He has a pacemaker and a melody valve. Over all Chris has lived a normal life with some limitations but he over came many obstacles and enjoyed swimming, BMX Racing, Running, art, playing Video games, and playing Music. Chris was always a honor role student with a bright future. He was inspired by the Doctors who helped save his life and wanted to be a Cardiologist when he grew up. He was just starting his freshman year taking classes to help him meet his goal to go to Stanford and skip a 4 year college by the time he graduated from highschool. 3 days in to the school year Chris woke with a sore throat and fever his symptoms continued to get worse quickly with in 24 hrs of being sick Chris had Coded on us minutes after walking in to the emergency room he was life flighted to Sutter Sacramento where he was quickly put on Life Support. Our world was spinning out of control not understanding what could be going on with our son we were being told chances of him making it was less then 10% and we see people this sick only about 3 times a year in CA and out of the 3 less then 1 make it. This just wasn't a option for our son we couldn't lose him. He was in Septic shock and all his organs and blood flow was shutting down. The doctors told us after about a week of ECMO and continues dialysis, and having so many machines working for him that it was time to tell our family Chris wasn't coming home. The hardest thing I ever did was tell my son if he wanted to go home to our Lord it was okay and if he chose to stay life would be very different as the doctors had told us Life Support ECMO isn't made to save limbs only main organs and he may have brain damage if he makes it. I was willing to say goodbye if that's what he wanted but if he was willing to stay I would accept anything we had to overcome together. My husband and I went to the chapel in the hospital and prayed harder then we ever have. We called our family to come up to tell them Chris wasn't coming home. We went back to Chris and about 9+ doctors were at his room they told us I don't know what happened but when you were gone his heart started beating on it's own. There was no question for me I knew God was answering our prayers and Chris was ready to fight. From that day on he slowly started improving. We started making plans to get him to his home hospital in Palo Alto where he had all his heart repairs done. After a little over a month in Sacramento he was well enough to be transferred to Palo Alto CA. He spent his first month there doing daily Dialysis getting his kidneys out of failure and getting multiple blood transfusion and fighting infections. In early October it was time for his first amputations to all 4 limbs. In October he was going to the OR for more amputations and debrement 19 times. This took a toll on his heart he was again in heart failure and needed emergency surgery to place a new pacemaker at this point the best of the best doctors called us in to tell us how sick Chris was again and they had a ECMO machine ready for him if his heart didn't start coming out of failure. Thankfully the heart surgery was a success and his heart slowly started showing improvement by December Chris was healthy enough to start working on his limbs again. But he got another infection that again postponed surgeries on his limbs. Finally in January he was able to do a trial run of Cadavar grafts which have been a success. During this time he was able to go home for a couple weeks to rest and wait for the cadavar graft to fall off to move on to grafting from his own body. Chris has always been that one person who shows the doctors there is different ways to do things everything isn't always by the book. He’s not a big sports fan, but he would say Stanford and The 49ers if he had to pick (but he would be saying that to make his dad and brothers happy.) He loves Iron Man and Marvel superheroes. He really enjoys playing video games, which has been very challenging with his new limbs. He loves music has a very unique taste, from oldies and rock and roll to country and Disney. His goal is to run again, and to swim. He enjoys the outdoors, the ocean, and camping, so he hopes he is able to do all the things he loves again.

This story was submitted by the child’s parent exclusively for use by Operation Dez Strong.