Hans & Franz

Thank you for your support of team Hans & Franz! Words will never be able to express how thankful I am for all of the support of our family and friends over the past three and a half years. I'm very excited that Team Hans & Franz is participating for the 3rd year and hope to surpass our fundraising goals of last year. Team Hans and Franz is in honor of Andrew & Colin Holzhauer, who had the nicknames of Hans & Franz when they were in the womb. At 20 weeks gestation, Andrew was diagnosed with a slight coarchtation of aorta and a bicuspid aortic valve and Colin was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot.

After birth, an echo showed that Andrew's coarch was not as bad as previous fetal echoes had shown and it was decided that he did not need a repair. Our team will continue to watch Andrew yearly to keep an eye on his BAV. Currently, Andrew is doing great. He loves to sing and act like a crazy kid. He definitely knows what he wants and isn't afraid to tell us. He also loves playing with trains and cars and anything with wheels!

On April 11, 2013 at a routine visit to the pediatrician, Colin had what is known as a "tet spell" and was turning blue. They immediately sent us to the ER and we were admitted to the CICU (Cardiac Intensive Care Unit). Colin had his first open heart surgery the next morning, on April 12. Unfortunatly, during a routin echo 3 weeks later it was discovered that he now had a pseudoaneurysm, which led to his 2nd open heart surgery on May 17, 2013. He has since had three heart catheterizations, and a double barrel stent was placed in his right pulmonary artery. It's been recently discovered that they believe that stent is fractured and Colin is scheduled for his 4th cath on February 12th to correct that and possibly address narrowing in his left PA. Colin is our strong willed and witty child. He loves to do things he shouldn't while laughing his sneeky little laugh. He also loves playing trains and running around with Andrew. Colin was also recently released from the Early Intervention program where he received feeding and speech therapy. We're so proud of him and all of his hard work :)

A HUGE thank you goes out to Dr. Spray, Dr. Natarajan, Dr. Rome and Dr. Corcoran who have all played the biggest roles in getting Colin and Andrew where they are today. This is our dream team and I can't imagine having anyone else take care of my kids. While we don't love going to the doctor, we do always look forward to seeing the doctors and nurses as they now feel like part of our family.

- See more at: http://events.congenitalheartwalk.org/site/TR/Walk/General?px=1009600&pg=personal&fr_id=1523...