OC Toddler, Parents Return To California Without Groundbreaking Heart Surgery
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Noah Connally, the Orange County 3-year-old who was expected to receive a potentially lifesaving surgery in Boston Thursday, has returned to California with his parents without the groundbreaking operation.
"We are two Orange County teachers," Noah's mom Niccole Connally said. "I teach high school, my husband teaches middle school. We have five children."
Noah, the youngest of the Connally children, was born with only half of his heart fully-formed and has required multiple surgeries — the first before he was even born. Yesterday, the family arrived at Boston Children's Hospital for a long day of procedures and testing prior to the planned operation.
"We can have heart surgery in California, but we can't have this heart surgery in California," Niccole said.
Unfortunately the surgery, a bi-ventricular repair using the toddler's own body parts to give him a fully-functioning heart, ended up not happening. The tests conducted prior to the surgery revealed that heart reconstruction was less of a solution in Noah's case than first believed.
Now the family is heading back to Southern California knowing that without the surgery in Boston, Noah may eventually need a heart transplant. But Noah's parents will not give up on their child.
"You know we're going to keep fighting for our son to make sure he has the best possible outcome," Noah's father Sean said Tuesday.
A GoFundMe was started for the Connally family to raise the estimated $1 million needed for that surgery. The fund's goal has since been lowered to $100,000, and the money raised will be used to help cover Noah's other medical expenses. The page has already raised more than $106,000.
Noah will be celebrating his fourth birthday Aug. 18.
