Medical expenses for Sebastian John Heath

Sebastian John Heath was born at 2:41 am November 4, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta. He is a beautiful baby boy and without knowing more, would appear to be perfectly healthy. Unfortunately, Sebastian was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect before he was born. His particular diagnosis includes a double inlet left ventricle and a hypo-plastic right ventricle. What this means is that his heart is mixing oxygenated blood with deoxygenated blood and the right side of the heart is unable to pump blood to his lungs.

Sebastian's diagnosis requires him to have at least three open heart surgeries early in his life. One in the next two weeks, one at 4 months, and another one at 4 years old. Sebastian needs monthly checkups in Edmonton with doctors to make sure he does not require any more surgeries if things do not go “as planned”.

The difficulty is Sebastian lives more than 10 hours away from Edmonton in Fox Lake Alberta. Edmonton is the nearest hospital that can perform this type of treatment. Fox Lake is a remote community where they need to fly out of the community for 4 months a year and travel on a bush road with a barge, the rest of the year. Monthly checkups require his parents to take time off work to travel and find accommodations along with other medical travel costs.

This is where you come in. The family needs financial support. The birth alone has accumulated over $20000 of travel and accommodation expenses while the family remains relocated in Edmonton to attend the many appointments and follow-ups for Sebastian.

The family will only use what is needed to help with expenses for Sebastian. If there is anything beyond what is needed, all remaining funds would be donated to the Stollery Children’s Hospital for their exemplary care and all the hard work put into helping children with all kinds of health problems, including congenital heart defects.

Sebastian was able to spend one week with his family outside of the hospital before needing to be readmitted to the NICU when his heart was not able to properly pump his oxygenated blood. He has several severe "blue spells" where the oxygen in his blood dropped to below 40%. This is a very dangerous amount and Sebastian is now required to stay in the NICU until his first surgery and possibly until the surgery in 4-6 months.

Anything to assist Sebastian and his family is greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read Sebastian’s story and for all the support and prayers as he is on this medical journey.