Jack Hanson was born 7 weeks early on Saturday, 24 October 2009 at 9:22pm at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, FL, weighing 5 pounds 12 ounces, and measuring only 18.5 inches. He was born with a rare congenital heart defect (Double Outlet Right Ventricle with Transposition of the Great Arteries), which affects < 1% of all children born with CHDs. Three hours after birth, he was separated from his parents, Laura and Mark, and flown by helicopter to Orlando Regional Hospital, because there were no cardiac surgeons available in Pensacola.


Jack underwent several surgical procedures in which stents were placed in his heart to keep the pulmonary artery open for blood to flow to his lungs. Laura and Mark were able to make the 7 hour trip to Orlando from their home in Pensacola the following Monday, in order to be with their newborn son following the surgery. Laura's sister Jody, who had flown to Pensacola, uprooting her life in Connecticut, joined Laura and Mark on the trip to Orlando.


Unfortunately, Mark had to return to Pensacola for work after just 2 weeks. Laura, along with her sister, who was an incredible support resource, remained in Orlando with Jack. After 5 weeks in the hospital, Jack, his mother, and 3-year-old sister, Ava, relocated to Laura's hometown of Branford, Connecticut in order to be closer to the cardiac surgeons of Yale-New Haven Hospital and the support of Laura's family. Mark remained behind in Pensacola, continuing to work to help offset the family's growing medical bills.


During the next several months, Jack went through a number of hospital stays to treat various complications. One lasted for 16 days, in order to treat a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), while another lasted 7 days, in which doctors needed to balloon open Jack's stent so that blood could continue to flow.

After nearly 4 months, Mark was able to join his wife and children in Connecticut, as the family prepared for Jack's first open-heart surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital, a Bi-Directional Glenn Operation. The surgery was performed successfully on 7 April 2010. Jack did amazingly well and was discharged in record time on 12 April 2010.


In just five short months, Baby Jack's medical bills have added up to almost $1 Million, the lifetime maximum coverage that health insurance companies impose on policy holders. Once this limit is reached all of Jack's future medical bills will be 100% the responsibility of his parents.




Jack