Friends and family ask for support for a Brownwood dispatcher’s newborn son who was born with a heart defect and is waiting for open heart surgery.
Gage Snell (a dispatcher for the Brownwood Police Department and member of the Early Volunteer Fire Department) and his wife Tandi welcomed a new addition to their family on July 7th. Their newborn son Oliver was originally thought to have a heart murmur and fluid in his lungs; however in a follow up appointment, the murmur had worsened and his oxygen levels had also decreased. Oliver was rushed to Cooks Children’s Hospital in Dallas, where the Snells learned he had a major heart defect known as Tetrology of Fallot, which changes the normal flow of blood through the heart, according to a coworker and friend Jim Hicks.
Oliver remains in the Cook’s Children’s intensive care unit in Dallas awaiting two surgeries on his heart. Doctors decided to postpone the surgery until he was 2 weeks old; however this has again been delayed due to blood in his stools and a possible infection.
A Facebook page “Pray for Oliver” has been developed to give updates on Oliver’s condition. His parents recently posted the following:
“Due to Ollie having bloody stools his surgery was cancelled until they figure out what else is going on. He won’t be able to eat for a few days now. He now has a tube going in his mouth into his stomach to suck out anything in his stomach. Also has had a Picc line inserted and an IV. I was expecting this day to be a difficult one but was completely bracing myself for a completely different kind of day. This is really turning out to be the longest two weeks of my life.”
The family has been staying in the Ronald McDonald House, while they await Oliver’s surgery, which could be in weeks or months, Hicks explained.
A fundraiser to help the family with medical and travel expenses has been started on GoFundMe.com. An account, “the Oliver Snell Fund,” has also been set up at Citizens National Bank. Donations can be made at CNB, located at #1 Carnegie in Brownwood, or mailed to Citizens National Bank, Oliver Snell Fund, PO Box 1629, Brownwood, Texas 76801.
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Tetrology of Fallot is a congenital heart defect, where there is a problem with the heart’s structure present at birth. This changes the normal flow of blood through the heart. It is a rare, complex heart defect and occurs in about 5 out of every 10,000 babies. For more information about Tetrology of Fallot, click here.
Over the past few decades, the diagnosis and treatment of Tetrology of Fallot have greatly improved, according to NHLBI. Most children who have this heart defect survive to adulthood. However, they will need lifelong medical care from specialists to help them stay as healthy as possible.
