Wyatt's Warrior keeps the beat going

WHITBY -- Home for two-year-old Wyatt has always been inside the walls of the cardiac critical care unit at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

Born with several heart defects, Wyatt has been hooked up to a ventilator, undergoing a multitude of tests and procedures, for all but two months of his short life.

Recently, he was inches away from returning home to Whitby with his mother Lisa when his condition suddenly worsened and doctors informed the family he would be staying in hospital.

"He just went from way up high to way down low in the matter of one day," said Wyatt's aunt, Laura Celsie, who lives in Brooklin.

Congenital heart defects are abnormalities in the heart's structure, present at birth, that disrupt the normal flow of the blood through the organ. They are the most common type of birth defect, affecting 1 in 70 Canadian newborns.

Wyatt was just over two weeks old when he had his first open-heart surgery and since then has had four more, in addition to three cardiac catheterizations and a tracheotomy. No more surgeries are planned for Wyatt who continues to hold on strong, surprising those around him every day.

"He's such a strong little boy and he has a very distinct personality where he does everything his own way," Ms. Celsie said.

Wyatt has set records at the hospital for the amount of time he has continued to hang in there in the cardiac critical care unit, typically designed to accommodate only short-term stays.

"We've seen so many kids pass away and you're always sitting there thinking 'that's never going to be us, that's never going to be us,' but it could be us."

Ms. Celsie established a charity called Wyatt's Warriors to raise awareness about congenital heart defects locally while her sister Lisa stays by Wyatt's side.

To date, fundraising efforts, including a gala and golf tournament, have brought in more than $20,000 for the hospital's cardiac care unit and covered Wyatt's expenses.

Ms. Celsie is planning the second annual golf tournament this year with proceeds going to funding a new long-term care project in the cardiac critical care unit at Sick Kids.

The tournament will take place on Saturday, June 6 at the Newcastle Golf and Country Club. Tickets are $130 and include a round of golf, a cart and a steak dinner. Tickets for dinner only are $30. There will be raffles, a meat roll and a putting contest.

Phone: Register before May 31 by calling Laura Celsie at 289-404-1021

E-mail: wyatts-warriors@hotmail.com

Website: http://www.totsites.com/tot/wyatts/