Brandt's bio written by his mother, Tandy - Brandt was born on January 1, 1998. He was born 3 weeks early so he was a little small, but otherwise healthy. When he was 7 weeks old, he had what the doctor thought to be an upper respiratory infection. He was hospitalized overnight and then sent home. The next 48 hours were horrifying. He became completely lethargic, stopped eating and turned a not-pretty shade of blue. A trip to the local ER and he was off on an ambulance ride to a town 85 miles from home to another ER. They were not able to treat him there because of lack of infant echocardiogram equipment, so they transferred him across town to another hospital.
     He spent a week in the pediatric ICU. For the first 2 days they couldn't tell us if he was going to make it or not. He is truly a fighter and the hospital stay that they assured us would be 2-3 weeks turned into 6 days. They believe his DCM was caused by a virus but the biopsy was inconclusive.
     He lagged behind developmentally for about the first 7 months after being diagnosed but at 10 months, he took off and learned everything in 2 weeks: sitting up, crawling and pulling up. He was walking by his first birthday. His EF is now 35% and his fractional shortening is 15 to 18 months after diagnosis. He takes Captopril, Lasix and digoxin. The amounts change about every 3 months due to weight gain. He is doing remarkably well! God has blessed us with a beautiful child to love and care for, and we just thank Him for that gift.

Tandy K, Brandt's mom -- September 20, 1999

All information on this site is opinion only. All concepts, explanations, trials, and studies have been re-written in plain English and may contain errors. No one here is a doctor. No information on this page should be used by any person to affect their medical, legal, educational, social, or psychological treatment in any way. This web site and all its pages copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Jon C.