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Mason Godin loves his toy sports car, a red convertible.
But, above all, he obsesses on the alphabet, arranging lettered tiles in symmetrical lines on a table and then keying a tablet alphabet learning device.
Everything about the scene – runny nose included – speaks to a normal, healthy, inquisitive child at play under his mother’s gaze. Look closer and note Mason uses his right hand almost exclusively while his left arm hangs slightly limp, his left fingers curled up, hints of deeper issues.
We all wish for a better, more peaceful year in 2018.
Little Mason, who turns three on Saturday, has more basic needs. He could use a break in every sense, but what he needs above all is a new heart.
Life has been a battle for Mason since the day he was born with a rare birth defect at Toronto’s Mt. Sinai Hospital on Jan. 6, 2015. Mason has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a fancy way of saying the left side of his heart does not function normally. Essentially he has half a heart.
PHOTOS: Two-year-old to receive heart transplant
By the time he was six months old, Mason was already a veteran of two open heart surgeries, including, at seven days old, the Norwood procedure to boost blood circulation.
His mother, Erika Godin, 31, a devoted single parent, could write a book on Mason’s health issues. Lungs that have been compromised. Blood vessel issues around the heart that have ruined his tricuspid valve (which prevents back flow of blood into the right atrium). A small aorta, narrow pulmonary arteries, pulmonary hypertension …
“It’s like a circle,” Godin says. “They fix one thing but that causes problems and then those problems cause more problems. It snowballs.”
Over the months, and now approaching three years, Godin has become trained to expect complications, the harder road traveled.
“It’s never been straightforward with him,” she says. “You just learn to go into it with an open mind and you don’t have any expectations that what they said is actually going to happen.”
Relating the calamities she chuckles, when tears would be the other option.
Mason, ever more aware, could warm a cold heart with his smile. He tires easily, though, often naps for up to four hours, and gets blue tinges around the lips and nose after vigorous activity.
“He’s such a good kid,” his mother says. “You just feel so sorry for him. It’s hard because most boys his age don’t even know what a hospital is, but every time we go there he says, ‘Mommy, I don’t want any more ow-ies.
“It’s hard as a mom to go through.”
So, how was your year?
In 2017, Mason endured a third open heart surgery and two strokes. At age two. The first stroke happened during surgery, another shortly after. It has reduced his left side function, though his speech was unaffected.
Recently, came the inevitable news he will need a new heart. Very soon. By the end of January, or perhaps early February, Mason will be put on a list of those awaiting heart transplants.
The operation will be performed at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, likely after a waiting period of several months. Mason and his mother will have to move to Toronto to be near the hospital so they can report on short notice when Mason’s new heart is ready.
A year or more in Toronto for the operation and recovery represent an enormous financial burden on Godin, who is unable to work while providing constant care for Mason at their east end Ottawa apartment – close to CHEO.
The boy’s father, who is in Korea, is not in the picture. Godin has lived in Ottawa for two years and draws vital emotional support from her sister, Rylee. Godin’s parents live elsewhere.
While she receives enough social assistance through the Ontario Works program to cover her Ottawa rent, Godin would eventually like to return to school and start a career. She was enrolled in East Asian Studies at York University and had hoped to work as a translator but the birth of Mason and his ongoing health challenges rendered her a 24/7 mother and caregiver. A simple cold can send Mason to hospital. Trips to a grocery store and exposure to outside germs bring stress and worry.
“We live in a bubble in winter,” she says
The transplant, when it happens, won’t be a cure-all. As Godin says, it’s not as simple as changing a battery in a car or cell phone. Mason will need anti-rejection medication and life-long immunosuppressant drugs to keep his body from attacking the new organ. Many of the medications are not covered by insurance. The future, like the past, is daunting.
As you toast the New Year, give a thought to Mason — 2018 presents his fourth open heart surgery before age four while his mother clings to hope of a better quality of life for her only child.
“We do the best we can,” Godin says. “I’m trying to be positive.”
HELP SUPPORT MASON
A fundraiser will be held for Mason and Erika on Jan. 12 from 5-8 p.m. at Kids Kingdom in Kanata. Tickets are $25 per family. The contact person is Brooklyn at fairytalefundraisingottawa@outlook.com.
Godin hopes to raise $5,000, but will be happy with any support.
“It’s not easy to ask for help, ever,” she says. “It’s kind of embarrassing.
“But you have to do everything you can because when it comes down to it, it’s a little boy’s life. I have to do the best I can, to get him the help he needs.”
wscanlan@postmedia.com
twitter/@hockeyscanner
查看原文...
But, above all, he obsesses on the alphabet, arranging lettered tiles in symmetrical lines on a table and then keying a tablet alphabet learning device.
Everything about the scene – runny nose included – speaks to a normal, healthy, inquisitive child at play under his mother’s gaze. Look closer and note Mason uses his right hand almost exclusively while his left arm hangs slightly limp, his left fingers curled up, hints of deeper issues.
We all wish for a better, more peaceful year in 2018.
Little Mason, who turns three on Saturday, has more basic needs. He could use a break in every sense, but what he needs above all is a new heart.
Life has been a battle for Mason since the day he was born with a rare birth defect at Toronto’s Mt. Sinai Hospital on Jan. 6, 2015. Mason has hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a fancy way of saying the left side of his heart does not function normally. Essentially he has half a heart.
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PHOTOS: Two-year-old to receive heart transplant
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PHOTOS: Two-year-old to receive heart transplant
Erika Godin and her son Mason who is about to turn three years old were photographed at their home in Ottawa Saturday December 30, 2017. Mason was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and will be undergoing a heart transplant at SickKids in Toronto in the new year. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Erika Godin and her son Mason who is about to turn three years old were photographed at their home in Ottawa Saturday December 30, 2017. Mason was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and will be undergoing a heart transplant at SickKids in Toronto in the new year. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Erika Godin and her son Mason who is about to turn three years old were photographed at their home in Ottawa Saturday December 30, 2017. Mason was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and will be undergoing a heart transplant at SickKids in Toronto in the new year. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Erika Godin and her son Mason who is about to turn three years old were photographed at their home in Ottawa Saturday December 30, 2017. Mason was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and will be undergoing a heart transplant at SickKids in Toronto in the new year. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Erika Godin and her son Mason who is about to turn three years old were photographed at their home in Ottawa Saturday December 30, 2017. Mason was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and will be undergoing a heart transplant at SickKids in Toronto in the new year. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Mason, who is to have a heart transplant next year, loves to play with his alphabet blocks Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Erika Godin and her son Mason who is about to turn three years old were photographed at their home in Ottawa Saturday December 30, 2017. Mason was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and will be undergoing a heart transplant at SickKids in Toronto in the new year. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Erika Godin and her son Mason who is about to turn three years old were photographed at their home in Ottawa Saturday December 30, 2017. Mason was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and will be undergoing a heart transplant at SickKids in Toronto in the new year. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Erika Godin and her son Mason who is about to turn three years old were photographed at their home in Ottawa Saturday December 30, 2017. Mason was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and will be undergoing a heart transplant at SickKids in Toronto in the new year. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Erika Godin and her son Mason who is about to turn three years old were photographed at their home in Ottawa Saturday December 30, 2017. Mason was born with a rare congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome and will be undergoing a heart transplant at SickKids in Toronto in the new year. Ashley Fraser/Postmedia Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
By the time he was six months old, Mason was already a veteran of two open heart surgeries, including, at seven days old, the Norwood procedure to boost blood circulation.
His mother, Erika Godin, 31, a devoted single parent, could write a book on Mason’s health issues. Lungs that have been compromised. Blood vessel issues around the heart that have ruined his tricuspid valve (which prevents back flow of blood into the right atrium). A small aorta, narrow pulmonary arteries, pulmonary hypertension …
“It’s like a circle,” Godin says. “They fix one thing but that causes problems and then those problems cause more problems. It snowballs.”
Over the months, and now approaching three years, Godin has become trained to expect complications, the harder road traveled.
“It’s never been straightforward with him,” she says. “You just learn to go into it with an open mind and you don’t have any expectations that what they said is actually going to happen.”
Relating the calamities she chuckles, when tears would be the other option.
Mason, ever more aware, could warm a cold heart with his smile. He tires easily, though, often naps for up to four hours, and gets blue tinges around the lips and nose after vigorous activity.
“He’s such a good kid,” his mother says. “You just feel so sorry for him. It’s hard because most boys his age don’t even know what a hospital is, but every time we go there he says, ‘Mommy, I don’t want any more ow-ies.
“It’s hard as a mom to go through.”
So, how was your year?
In 2017, Mason endured a third open heart surgery and two strokes. At age two. The first stroke happened during surgery, another shortly after. It has reduced his left side function, though his speech was unaffected.
Recently, came the inevitable news he will need a new heart. Very soon. By the end of January, or perhaps early February, Mason will be put on a list of those awaiting heart transplants.
The operation will be performed at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, likely after a waiting period of several months. Mason and his mother will have to move to Toronto to be near the hospital so they can report on short notice when Mason’s new heart is ready.
A year or more in Toronto for the operation and recovery represent an enormous financial burden on Godin, who is unable to work while providing constant care for Mason at their east end Ottawa apartment – close to CHEO.
The boy’s father, who is in Korea, is not in the picture. Godin has lived in Ottawa for two years and draws vital emotional support from her sister, Rylee. Godin’s parents live elsewhere.
While she receives enough social assistance through the Ontario Works program to cover her Ottawa rent, Godin would eventually like to return to school and start a career. She was enrolled in East Asian Studies at York University and had hoped to work as a translator but the birth of Mason and his ongoing health challenges rendered her a 24/7 mother and caregiver. A simple cold can send Mason to hospital. Trips to a grocery store and exposure to outside germs bring stress and worry.
“We live in a bubble in winter,” she says
The transplant, when it happens, won’t be a cure-all. As Godin says, it’s not as simple as changing a battery in a car or cell phone. Mason will need anti-rejection medication and life-long immunosuppressant drugs to keep his body from attacking the new organ. Many of the medications are not covered by insurance. The future, like the past, is daunting.
As you toast the New Year, give a thought to Mason — 2018 presents his fourth open heart surgery before age four while his mother clings to hope of a better quality of life for her only child.
“We do the best we can,” Godin says. “I’m trying to be positive.”
HELP SUPPORT MASON
A fundraiser will be held for Mason and Erika on Jan. 12 from 5-8 p.m. at Kids Kingdom in Kanata. Tickets are $25 per family. The contact person is Brooklyn at fairytalefundraisingottawa@outlook.com.
Godin hopes to raise $5,000, but will be happy with any support.
“It’s not easy to ask for help, ever,” she says. “It’s kind of embarrassing.
“But you have to do everything you can because when it comes down to it, it’s a little boy’s life. I have to do the best I can, to get him the help he needs.”
wscanlan@postmedia.com
twitter/@hockeyscanner
查看原文...
