A Cleveland family is thanking God and celebrating the life of their baby boy after a rare cardiac operation saved him. The mother, Danielle Edmonds asked her child’s physician to pray with her for her child and then witnessed a miracle from God.
Born three months prematurely on January 2021, DJ had spent 484 days in hospital and rehab after he was diagnosed with an extremely rare and life-threatening congenital heart defect that prevented blood from the heart’s two lower chambers to flow to the lungs and other parts of the body. His twin sibling had died while still in utero.
DJ’s parents believe that he would not have survived if it weren’t for the strength of prayer and the amazing healthcare facilities in Northeast Ohio.
For DJ’s mother, Danielle Edmonds, her child is a Godsend and a miracle baby through and through.
“I didn’t know if I would ever bring my baby home. From one hospital to the next,” Edmonds recounts. “It’s been a roller coaster from the beginning. From the beginning, I knew he was my miracle cause he survived,” she added.
According to Dr. Hani Najm, Chair of Pediatric and Adult Heart Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, “The two arteries [of DJ] instead of arising, each one of them from a different ventricle, they both arose from the same ventricle. So, the right ventricle has two outlets and left ventricle has no outlet.”
After learning about her baby’s diagnosis, Edmonds realized that it was only God who could save DJ now. She knew she had to let go of her fears and worries and let God control the difficult situation she was in.
“I asked him [Dr. Najm] to pray on his hands before he took my son. I said can I pray on your hands? And he didn’t think about it or not even knowing his religious beliefs… He just gave me his hands,” Edmonds recalls.
According to Dr. Najm, DJ was the youngest patient ever in his age group to have received the “the ventricular switch”. The surgery has been a life altering success and DJ is now in the best health that he can be.
“His color was blue around his eyes, around his lips. But when he came back from getting open heart surgery he was pink,” says the family.
Little DJ is now thriving happily and has even learned how to take selfies and is very fond of technology. He is under constant care and will be undergoing frequent medical checkups over the years.
We praise God for the miraculous healing and recovery of little DJ and join in celebrating his life with the family. He is a gift and has been a blessing by every definition of the word.