{"id":49008,"date":"2013-08-10T14:30:38","date_gmt":"2013-08-10T18:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=49008"},"modified":"2013-08-09T09:49:19","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T13:49:19","slug":"littlest-superheroes-celebrate-big-accomplishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=49008","title":{"rendered":"Littlest Superheroes Celebrate Big Accomplishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Red<\/a>On June 10, families of children born with congenital heart disease met with their state legislators and held a press conference to urge passage of the Pulse Ox bill, which would make sure every newborn receives the test before being discharged from the hospital. A pulse oximetry test detects a low level of oxygen in the blood, which could be sign of a congenital heart defect. This week, Gov. Cuomo signed the bill into law. Pictured here on June 10 are, from left, Shannon, Jack and Maggie James; state Sen. Bill Larkin, R-Cornwall-on-Hudson; Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, D-Forestburgh; RJ, Jacob and Kelsey Thomas of Syracuse; Dr. Harm Velvis; Tim, Jennifer and Aedan Conway of Delmar; Melissa and Colton Berlin of Mayfield.<\/i><\/p>\n

(Albany, NY \u2013 Aug. 8, 2013) Jacob, 15 months old; Jack, 5; Aedan, 22 months old; Colton, 2. These very young men have done something remarkable for people 20 times their age: they have helped pass a law. <\/b>All were born with a congenital heart defect. Since April, they and their parents have met with their legislators, hosted a press conference, and been interviewed in the media about their efforts to get the Pulse Ox bill passed and signed into law.<\/p>\n

Today, Jacob, Jack, Aedan and Colton can once again don their red \u201cAmerican Heart Association Superhero\u201d capes and celebrate the fact that Gov. Cuomo signed the Pulse Ox bill into law.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>The Pulse Oximetry test will be given to every newborn before discharge from the hospital. It\u2019s a simple and noninvasive test that measures the level of oxygen in the blood stream. A low level can be an indication of a congenital heart defect, the most common kind of birth defect. Nearly 1 in 100 children is born with a congenital heart defect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am overcome with joy that Governor Cuomo has taken the initiative to sign the Pulse Oximetry bill,\u201d said American Heart Association spokeswoman Kelsey Thomas of Syracuse. \u201cMy son Jacob’s life was saved because this screening was performed on him. He could have been discharged from the hospital and become one of many babies who have passed away as a result of their congenital heart defect. \u00a0It gives me so much pride knowing that something our family has worked so hard for alongside the American Heart Association will now save so many babies’ lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patti Stone of Congers serves as an American Heart Association spokeswoman because she did lose her child to a congenital heart defect.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamantha was born in 2002, seemingly healthy,\u201d Stone said.\u00a0 \u201cSix weeks later, Samantha went into cardiac arrest. Samantha had not had a pulse ox test and we learned she had an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. Her death is a heartbreaking, senseless loss. I\u2019m glad that Governor Cuomo is signing a law so other babies might live the long and healthy lives we thought Samantha would.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were discharged from the hospital with a healthy baby boy,\u201d said American Heart Association spokeswoman Melissa Berlin of Gloversville. \u201cAt his well-baby visit one week later, Colton began to turn blue. We were rushed to the emergency room, where we learned that he had a congenital heart defect. He has already had two out of three scheduled open heart surgeries. I am haunted by the thought that this might not have happened in the doctor\u2019s office, and we might not have our lively 2-year-oldwith us today. I\u2019d like to thank Gov. Cuomo for signing this law so that hopefully no other family will ever have this worry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew when we were expecting Aedan that he had a heart defect,\u201d Jennifer Corcoran Conway of Delmar, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, said. \u201cThat knowledge let us take action as soon as Aedan was born. Today, he\u2019s happy and healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sooner we identify a problem, the sooner we can treat it and let these children and their families lead the kinds of lives they imagined they would lead,\u201d said Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Harm Velvis, a spokesman for the American Heart Association. \u201cThank you, Governor Cuomo, for seeing the sense and simplicity of conducting a pulse ox test on every newborn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pulse Ox Bill was sponsored by Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, D-Forestburgh and Senator Bill Larkin, R-Cornwall-on-Hudson.<\/p>\n

The law will take effect in 180 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 10, families of children born with congenital heart disease met with their state legislators and held a press conference to urge passage of the Pulse Ox bill, which would make sure every newborn receives the test before being discharged from the hospital. A pulse oximetry test detects a low level of oxygen in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-cKs","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}