WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
LIONS LAND LOKOMBO Abbotsford linebacker signs with local CFL club A28
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Fourth surgery for little Joshua Baby born with congenital heart condition Vikki HOPES
HADWIN WINS AGAIN
Abbotsford News
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oshua Taekema was awakening after his third surgery, at just five months of age, when he looked up at the nurse tending to him and gave her a precious smile before drifting back to sleep. The gesture is indicative of Joshua’s calm and happy nature, despite a short life filled with medical interventions and extended hospital stays. Today (Wednesday), the Abbotsford infant is scheduled for his fourth operation – open-heart surgery in which he will receive a donor artery to replace 90 per cent of his damaged one. Joshua was diagnosed shortly after his birth on Oct. 18, 2013, with tetralogy of fallot, a congenital heart defect which can lead to heart failure if not repaired. Joshua’s mom, Rachel Gammon, says the baby’s heart is turned in his chest so that it faces the left side of his torso. He has an aorta that lies over the pulmonary valve, instead of under it, and then passes between the chambers. This results in oxygen-poor blood flowing out of the heart and to the rest of the body. As a consequence, Joshua has shortness of breath, weakness, fatigue and occasional “tet spells” in which his skin turns blue due to a rapid drop of oxygen in his body. He has also been unable to gain sufficient weight. At almost a year old, he is about 13 and a half pounds – the size of an average three-month-old baby – and is not yet crawling or sitting up on his own. Continued on A7
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A29 Second victory of Web.com Tour season for Abbotsford pro golfer
TASK FORCE REPORT A3 Group issues recommendations on homelessness in Abbotsford
TEACHERS RALLY A13 Local educators raise public profile in strike-related event at Rotary Stadium
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85¢ Mom Rachel Gammon looks over son Joshua Taekema, 11 months, as he sits in a special pillow that props him in an upright position. The baby, born with a congenital heart condition, is not yet able to sit up on his own. The pillow will VIKKI HOPES Abbotsford News be used for Joshua as he recovers from open-heart surgery.
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