Join us this week as Fani Dragati Stavrou shares her son’s journey after her son was diagnosed with CDH.
Tune in to at 6:00 pm EST, September 21, 2021 to https://www.blogtalkradio.com/cdh/2021/09/21/september-21-2021-guest-fani-dragati-stavrou-shares-the-story-of-her-son.
Listen to archives of the radio show at http://www.cdhradio.org.
Ioannis Arsenios Stavrou is a CDH survivor and 19 months old. His mom, Fani, shared with us after learning about CDH during her pregnancy “it was tough to learn something like this because we didn’t expect something like that.”
Fani goes on to describe what she was told would happen after Ioannis was born. “The doctor who did the ultrasound told me he will be born and have a surgery.” Fani asked if he will be okay and the doctor replied, he will be okay. “It was like walking in the clouds, I said to everyone, okay there is a problem, I will deliver him and he will have a surgery and all will be good.”
The journey that was to unfold was difficult for the Stavrou family. Talking about her pregnancy Fani mentioned, “my baby is very strong. He was kicking very hard, harder than my other two babies I had. I told him my baby is very strong, he will live.” Ioannis would spend 99 days in the NICU before his family would get to take him home.
Access to care globally for a CDH baby can be hard. Tune in to this week’s radio show and listen to Fani describe the differences in care between Greece and the US and how her son is a fighter. She mentions, “the first day, no one expected that he will live. They told us these babies normally they don’t last to surgery. Most of them are delivered to the pediatrician/hospitals and they don’t have the opportunity to get the surgery because they don’t make it. We feel we have a miracle.”
Fani is one of the translators for our Greek Parent Reference Guide and a great resource for CDH families in Greece. The other three authors include Maria Tzaki, Golfo Poulouktsi and Barbara Loukeri. To obtain a copy of the PRG in Greek, visithttps://cdhi.org/the-cdh-parent-reference-guide-is-now-available-in-greek/.
To share your child’s story with CDH, please visit https://cdhi.org/shareyourstory/ for more information.
