Ninja’s battle: Toddler’s story raises awareness for CHD
El Paso,TX- It’s Congenital Heart Disease Awareness Week. According to the March of Dimes, nearly 1 in 100 babies is born with a heart defect in the United States each year. ABC-7’s Nichole Gomez sat down with the Battle family,which says it is trying to raise awareness about congenital heart disease and help their son Janin Battle find his inner superhero.
Janin Battle is 2 years old, and his family calls him,”Ninja” — a fighter in his own right. He may look like your average 2 year old, with a big smile and bright brown eyes. He’s overcome a lot already. Janin’s mother, Kristal Battle, “A lot of times he is on oxygen and we have to monitor it, he’s on a pulse-oximeter.”
Janin, was was born at 25 weeks, and three days after his birth, he was diagnosed with two heart defects.
“The first one was tetralogy of fallot, and the second one was pulmonary artesia,” says Kristal Battle.
The first condition is a combination of four different structural heart defects; the second -involves three more. His lungs aren’t able to produce enough oxygen for the blood flowing through his body.
His father, Trent Battle, says, “Being born at 25 weeks, you have immature lungs on top of having a heart condition. We have to give him breathing treatments and emergency treatments as needed.”
Janin’s heart condition has been a tough battle for the family.
“Things aren’t normal like they would be with a normal child; he’ll regurgitate his food. You have to help the specialist out when he’s not used to them,” said TrentBattle.”
Ninja’s family is helping every step of the way. his mom says they have a ritual to make him feel comfortable.
“We’ll help during his breathing treatments. We’ll sing ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ while we are testing his oxygen levels,” she said.”
Janin will undergo his second of many surgeries in a few weeks.
His father tells ABC-7, ” What I hope is he can actually grow and, he can function as a regular young boy and not have to stop and have oxygen put on him. He can just develop and be himself, and become Ninja, who Ninja’s supposed to be.”
The Battle family encourages pregnant women to talk to their doctors about heart defects.
The family will be holding a Zumba event to raise money for Ninja’s upcoming surgery.
The event will be held in northeast El Paso:
National Guard
9100 Gateway North Blvd.
(10 a.m. – 1 p.m.)
Gateway North Boulevard is off Hondo Pass)
If you can’t attend the event click on the link below to help Ninja fight his battle:
http://www.gofundme.com/ninjasheart
To learn more about congenital heart disease, click on these links:
http://www.marchofdimes.org/baby/congenital-heart-defects.aspx#
