By Ryan Ostry
Bugle Staff
@RyanOstry_BR18
rostry@buglenewspapers.com
Most parents when their children are born are ecstatic to just hold their baby, rejoice in the birthing experience and celebrate with family members.
However, this was not the experience with Tom and Amanda Kero’s son Duncan, who had a life-threatening complex Congenital Heart Defect during Amanda’s pregnancy.
The suburban couple from Lisle was completely shocked and taken by surprise when the panic and fear struck their bodies after finding out their second son’s condition.
“The unknown was the hardest part of the whole situation,” Amanda said. “We were just both so nervous and not knowing what to expect was very hard on both of us.”
This is not the first time distress has hit the Kero family, as Tom and Amanda’s first son, Ryne, also had a difficult birthing process.
“When Ryne was born, he was labeled as a ‘cedar grower’ because he was born prematurely,” Amanda said.
With Amanda being a high-risk pregnancy because of Ryne, the Keros knew admittedly that the second go around was not going to be easy.
During Amanda’s pregnancy, the Kero’s needed immediate help, so they went to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
With a lot of care, monitoring and attention Tom and Amanda welcomed Duncan into the world in October of 2015, however their difficult situation did not stop there.
After Duncan was born, his situation escalated and was quickly transferred to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago from the Loyola Medical Center.
“When you’re born you can either be a pink [tetralogy] or blue [tetralogy] and Duncan was a pink [tetralogy],” Amanda said.
According to Radiopaedia.org Duncan’s condition is related to a tetralogy of Fallot in which the degree of the right ventricular outflow obstruction is minimal, which in layman’s terms means it’s extremely difficult to breath.
“Besides this, Duncan was also born with phenomena because of his heart defect,” Amanda said.
Within the period of staying up all night ruminating, multiple surgery visits and constant heartbreak, the Kero’s found a bright spot, the Ronald McDonald House Charities.
“We kind off new of the (RMHC) and what they did, but didn’t know too specifically how much of an impact they were going to actually have on us,” Amanda said.
The (RMHC) is an organization that provides help and assistance to families in need by providing shelter, healthcare and safety to families with ill children.
“With me having the complications I had not being able to drive and being limited, this place made us feel at home and we just can’t thank them enough,” Amanda said.
Through the whole process, the Kero family articulates that it’s Duncan’s intestinal fortitude that doesn’t just keep him going, but also his family going.
“What [Duncan] has taught us and what we have learned is to just take it a day at a time,” Tom said. “He’s just such a feisty kid and he was in inspiration to all of us.”
Though the two-year-old Duncan has progressed and is doing better, he will require another valve replacement which will be his third open-heart surgery in a few years, but is expected to rise to the occasion, overcome it and keep being a true inspiration to everyone.