Christopher’s heart defect warranted urgent action. He had his first open heart surgery shortly after the defect was diagnosed at five weeks old. After the 12-hour surgery, he was dependent on life support. He was flown from the hospital in Virginia where he was born to Boston Children’s Hospital for additional care during his difficult and lengthy recovery from the surgery. Finally, after 101 days in the hospital, he came home. Since then, he has traveled to Boston Children’s over 30 times, had two more open heart surgeries, and 30 heart catheterizations to keep his heart as healthy as possible.

Today, Christopher is celebrating his tenth birthday. Birthdays are a big deal because these challenges started at the beginning of his life. Consequently, his family’s motto is “Go Big” for every birthday celebration. What good fortune that Sinful Endings Bakery is near their home in Virginia. The Wheel of Fortune Cake captured the spirit of Christopher and his big celebration. It was a win for everyone!

With smiles + cake,

Molly Sargen

Icing Smiles Blog Writer

Little Dawn was prenatally diagnosed with Trisomy 21 (commonly as Down Syndrome) and a congenital heart defect (Ebstien’s Anomaly, ASD, VSD, PDA) early on. Unfortunately, she was born early due to a failing heart and went straight to the NICU where she spent almost her first month of life due to complications with her lungs and heart.

At 2 months old she had to have her first and second open heart surgeries to repair several defects within days of one another. Unfortunately, the first surgery did not go as well as planned and she was put on life support within 15 hours after surgery until a new plan could be developed. During the second surgery (the next day) her doctor did an experimental procedure on her heart that saved her life. Because it had never been done before no one knew how long it would last before she would have to have more work done on her heart. The repair that was done lasted almost 2 1/2 years and sustained her until her tricuspid valve was replaced in October 2016.

Sweet Dawn was also diagnosed with severe recurrent obstructive sleep apnea. Her apnea required surgery just after her first birthday to remove her tonsils and adneoids and clip her voicebox. This wasn’t enough to correct her apnea, so just before turning 2 she had another airway surgery scheduled to remover her lingual tonsils and nasal turbinates. That was exactly what she needed to start breathing and sleeping better.

Since late 2016, Dawn has been incredibly healthy and strong! She has met so many milestones and continues to progress at an amazing pace. Her third birthday was the first birthday where she was truly healthy enough to participate fully in her own party. She was able to celebrate with family and friends and actually enjoy herself!

Her family mentions, “Having her amazing Icing Smiles cake from Theresa’s Sweet Treats N Treasures was literally the ‘icing’ on her cake! It was so realistic that Dawn actually thought it was Elmo and tried to hug it. We will forever be grateful for not only the amazing cake but the love and care that went into helping make Dawn’s 3rd birthday so special! Theresa went above and beyond to make this experience one we will never forget and will always be grateful! Thank you for giving us this opportunity!”

Dawn’s Elmo themed dream cake was provided by Sugar Angel Theresa Wright with Theresa’s Sweet Treats N Treasures in Antioch, Tennessee. Thank you Theresa for all of your hard work and dedication to Icing Smiles. We look forward to seeing more “smiles” from you in the future!

Gabriel was born on March 12, 2014 a perfectly healthy newborn, or so we thought. When Gabriel was just 24 hours old the nurse was doing routine tests and the Pulse Oximetry Test results were not good. He was taken to the nursery for monitoring and additional testing and eventually was transferred to UVA Medical Hospital. We were told he almost didn’t make it, luckily he did!

After arriving at UVA where more tests were performed it was determined he has a congenital heart defect called, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, or HLHS is a heart defect where the left side of the heart is so underdeveloped it practically does not exist, nor function.

We were informed Gabriel would need open heart surgery, and not just one but 3. This was a complete shock to us, just a few hours before we thought we had a healthy newborn. Then we were being told our baby needed heart surgery. Parents today often find out during pregnancy if their child has HLHS – yet we were not aware of Gabriel’s diagnosis, which made it that much harder to comprehend.

He had his 1st surgery “The Norwood” on Tuesday, March 18, 2014. This was the hardest and longest day of our lives. Gabriel’s recovery was amazing and he was able to come home on Friday, March 28, 2014 just a week and a half after having major open heart surgery!

Gabriel received his 2nd surgery “The Glenn” on August 1st, 2014. He was discharged on August 9, 2014. After his 2nd open heart surgery, Gabriel just never made any advancements. He stayed little in size (not gaining any weight) and he wasn’t making any progress in physical therapy. On January 20, 2015, he was admitted to the hospital to have a NG Tube put in to help him with his weight issues. What was suppose to be a 2 day stay turned into over 2 weeks. He was finally discharged home, but, was only home for 1 week before we rushed him to the ER at UVA where they admitted him on 2/9/15. On Thursday, February 12, 2015 he went to the heart cath lab where they proved without a doubt that Gabriel needed a new heart (he coded and they had to use shockers on him).

The doctors started the process that day to have him officially listed for a heart transplant. On Thursday, February 18, 2015 he was officially listed on the National Heart Transplant waiting list. On February 20, 2015 he took a turn for the worse and had to be intubated and closely monitored in the PICU.

On Tuesday, March 3, 2015 Gabriel had surgery to have a tracheotomy, gtube, and new PICC Line put in. He did extremely well during surgery and later that day his cardiologist informed us that they had accepted a heart for Gabriel! He received his new “hero heart” on Wednesday, March 4, 2015!!

Gabriel has had many many additional surgeries, and hospitalizations. After one of his heart cath procedures he developed a staph infection which caused him to have many strokes and resulted in permanent brain damage.

Despite their circumstances, Gabriel’s family celebrated Gabriel’s 3rd birthday in true monster truck fashion! His cake was provided by Sugar Angel Tiffany Belk with Tiffany’s Sweets N’ Treats in Locust Grove, Virginia. The family shared, “We can’t express in words how so very appreciative we are. Tiffany truly blessed our son and our family with her generosity!”

Today young Gabriel is now in Speech Therapy and will have an upcoming MRI at the Children’s National Hospital in DC. This will be his one year follow up visit with his neurosurgeon. If his MRI looks similar or better than last year’s the doctor stated he will no longer have to be seen, so his family asks for prayers that all goes well.

Good Luck Gabriel from your Icing Smiles family! To keep up with his progress, follow his Facebook page.

“My son, Ben, was born with a severe congenital heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. He endured 6 open heart surgeries, 7 heart caths, 2 ECMO runs, and multiple other surgeries and complications. He passed away at 10.5 months old. He spent a total of 7 months of his life in the hospital. Emma was 17 months old when Ben was born. We had to move to another state to live during Ben’s life, so Emma was uprooted from her home and taken to a place she didn’t know. She was too young to understand why her brother couldn’t come home from the hospital. She was only 2 years old when he passed away… Ben never was able to receive an Icing Smiles cake, so we requested one for Emma for her 4th birthday. The cake made Emma’s day! She LOVED that cake so much! The baker even put something extra on the cake to represent Ben. It was so special and amazing!” ~Emma and Ben’s Family

Emma’s cake was created by Sugar Angel Cathy Harris in Paducah, Kentucky.

To read more of Ben’s story, please stop by his Facebook “Tymira is my miracle angel, she endured open heart surgery upon entering this world, stayed in the hospital for 2 months and during that stay had to have another surgery to have a Tracheostomy tube put in and a G-tube for feeding as well. Both of those were done the same day. After her stay in the hospital for her first 2 months, then the next 2 months,  she was in a rehabilitation hospital. She has had a few Heart Catherizations done to her where she is put to sleep and they put stents implanted in her heart for the blood to flow. Every week we are at the doctors office for back to back appointments. She’s a fighter and we all pray 24-7 for her safety and for a miracle to ease her pain. Thank You So Much For The Beautiful Cake! My Family And Friends Truly Loved And Enjoyed It So Much.” ~Tymira’s Family

Tymira’s cake was created by Sugar Angel Sabine Garrido of “Mason (8) was diagnosed with High Risk Medulloblastoma (brain cancer with cancer cells in his spinal fluid) in April 2015. His tumor was completely removed in a 5 hr surgery. He then completed 30 daily rounds of full brain and spinal radiation followed by 6 months of high dose chemotherapy. He completed chemotherapy on Christmas Eve 2015! An MRI in January revealed no new tumor growth and a lumbar puncture revealed no cancer cells in his central nervous system. On February 22, 2016, witnessed by his team of doctors, nurses, family, and friends, Mason rang the bell to signify his end of treatment! He will undergo an MRI every 3 months to watch for reoccurrence. He continues physical and occupational therapy. He is getting stronger each day and is looking forward to a vacation in FL! We had an excellent experience with Icing Smiles and would highly recommend your organization to others!” ~Mason’s Family