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Meet Lindon
On Aug. 28, 2005, Gail and her husband, Wayne, welcomed quadruplets into the world. Born eight weeks premature at The Birthplace at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, the babies were delivered by Caesarean section within a span of five minutes. Because of their small size, the quads spent their first month in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital.
Four days into the infants’ NICU stay, doctors told Gail and Wayne that the second- born quad, Lindon, had a heart murmur. After extensive diagnostic tests, doctors diagnosed Lindon with coarctation of the aorta (a narrowing of the large heart artery) and a ventricular septal defect (a hole in his heart); he would need surgery.
A few days later, a cardiologist at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital performed surgery to widen Lindon’s aorta. “Because Lindon only weighed 3.8 pounds, it was amazing that the surgery could occur,” says Elizabeth Braunlin, M.D., Lindon’s pediatric cardiologist. “The surgeon did an excellent job.” Braunlin says that most children who have this type of surgery are twice the weight of Lindon.
At 3 months old, Lindon returned to University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital to have physicians repair his ventricle septal defect and to get a pacemaker for his tiny heart. He spent five days on the Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine, to allow his lungs to rest and recover. Lindon then developed abnormal tissue in his heart and, when Lindon was 3 years old, doctors at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital performed a procedure to the tissue.
Lindon is now 4 years old and needs to have another surgery — within the next year — to repair additional abnormal heart tissue. In the meantime, he is active and enjoys playing with the other three quadruplets — or the ‘babes’ as Gail and Wayne affectionately call them — and his older brother, Blake. Dr. Braunlin says Lindon’s prognosis is good and that he should live a full, normal life.
Gail and Wayne say that they are pleased with the care that the staff at University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital provided to Lindon. “Their hands have been on Lindon’s heart and they’ve seen the inside of him — a side of him that I won’t see,” says Gail. “I trust in their knowledge and I couldn’t imagine going anywhere else …There’s a lot of comfort knowing that they know him very well.”
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