Five months into her pregnancy with Brock, Gena was devastated to learn he had a congenital heart defect;the left ventricle was missing. Her first child would be born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
She was introduced to Dr. John Kupferschmid, a cardiothoracic surgeon who specializes in treating congenital heart defects with Pediatric Specialists of Texas. Gena admits she was reluctant to meet him at first.
"I was pregnant and I was terrified. I'm not going to lie-;it was scary. I didn't want to get to know him at that time. But he was amazing. He was so good at explaining things. He never beat around the bush. He always told us the truth."
Brock would undergo his first, very complicated surgery when he was just five days old. His condition was so severe that the traditional surgical correction wasn't going to work in Brock's case. It gave Gena and her family a new respect for the role of surgeons like Dr. Kupferschmid who treated her son.
"He did absolutely everything every day to be with my child. He stayed day and night," Gena says.
And now, three years and a few set-backs later, Brock is doing very well and Gena could not be more proud. "Brock is smart as a whip. He is just the smartest little boy. He's amazing. I feel like he's overcome everything. He's absolutely normal."
Pediatric Specialists of Texas' Congenital Heart Surgery team is focused on the surgical correction of complex congenital heart defects in both children and adults and treatments of acquired heart disease in children.