Growing up, Katie achieved most of her developmental milestones on time. She walked a little later at 14 months but had already had two open heart surgeries by that time. Katie’s speech wasn’t developing as it should, so she had weekly speech therapy until she was four years old and her mother learned sign language to communicate with her.
Maddy was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is 25 years old. She was about three months old when her family received the news of her 22q diagnosis. At seven weeks of age, Maddy had open-heart surgery
In the eyes of his parents, “Our son Maximus is an absolute miracle, that took many years of hope and faith. Our journey begins with his mother Milagros, which means miracle in Spanish, always determined to make her dreams a reality.
Kahlia (pronounced like the flower Dahlia but with a “K”) was born in Pune, India on September 25, 2008. She became a part of our forever family on May 9, 2010. We were unaware of her 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.
Shelby is 17 years old, born in Michigan, but moved to Alabama the week of her first birthday. A cardiologist has always been a part of her life, but she was 2 before we received the diagnosis for 22q deletion syndrome.
I am Roger, a 60-year-old man who was born in 1960 with DiGeorge Syndrome and the 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome but did not receive a diagnosis until I was 43 years old!
It was a bright, overcast, Summer day in 2011. Fearless, 33-month-old Cayden David Helvey with 22q11.2 has overcome 5 surgeries. He jumped into the downtown Sanford North Carolina train park fountain with clothes and all.
Bailey was born in December 2004 and came home from the hospital as a healthy little girl. At 2 weeks old her doctor heard a heart murmur during a routine office visit and we were sent to a pediatric cardiologist to make sure that nothing serious was going on.
Alannah was born on 7th May 2006 after a normal pregnancy and very fast delivery. All appeared fine and we were thrilled with our little girl.
Jeff was born on November 23, 1992 and we immediately knew he had a cleft of the soft palate and low calcium levels. We were told that nothing else was wrong with our son.
