A young Woodstock resident recently celebrated her first birthday after going through more adversity in her short life that many face in a lifetime.
Born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, one year old Aleeda Killenberg has already had two major surgeries to correct her congenital heart defect. Unfortunately, the second surgery was not successful and her heart was not able to recover. Aleeda now waits in Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children for the gift of a new donor heart so she can return home. She has been patiently waiting for one to become available since July of 2012. For both Aleeda and her parents, the wait has been extremely difficult.
While Aleeda’s parents were originally told that there would likely be a wait of around three months for a new heart, due to a shortage of donor organs, she has had to wait much longer. Her mother feels that the shortage may, in part, be down to a lack of knowledge among new parents about the importance of organ donation.
Congenital heart defects are not especially rare, and while most people will not require a transplant, for those that do, the wait for a new heart can take far too long. Poster and brochure printers can be used to help spread the message that organ donation can give the gift of life to a child in need. Many people in the Woodstock area word hard to raise awareness for such causes and poster printing is one way this can be achieved.
