Family heartened by help for kye

A TORQUAY family is hoping for a little support from the community to help out their newborn son, who was born with half a heart.

Lisa vander Kuijl contacted the Surf Coast Times last week with the story of her son Kye, who was born on October 21 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome “This essentially means the left side of his heart did not develop and never will,”

she said.

“Our little man has endured phase one of his procedures, which included three open heart surgeries to enable the heart to function through just the right side as well as the repair of a collapsed lung.

“What doctors found after various tests were a combination of other complications, which makes him one of a kind and makes phase two of surgery (to take place this month) very technical Family heartened by help She said if all went well, the third through.”

take place when Kye was aged three or four, but the reality was that Kye may eventually need a heart transplant.

The Torquay family has been living at the Ronald McDonald house next to the Royal Children’s Hospital for almost four months and have started a GoFundMe page, which has raised more than $7,000 of its $30,000 target in under a month.

“Fortunately many of Kye’s medical costs have been taken care of, but the money we raise will be used for monitors, medications and other essential extras our little man needs in order to have the best chance at a healthy life moving forward,” Lisa said.

“We were very reluctant to put a fund page together as we rarely ask for help for Kye and play Kye’s situation down quite a bit, but after pulling our heads out of the sand and focusing on the fact this is for our little man and not us, it made our decision a lot easier.

“He has had a really rough start to life but he is such an incredible and happy little fella.”

To donate to Kye’s heart fund, head to gofundme.com/x8kvcxjr