From the surgical suite to the winner’s podium: brothers treated at Boston Children’s compete in the World Transplant Games

Though they’re two years apart, brothers Brock and Connor Marvin have a lot in common. They’re both affable, active young men who love watching and playing sports. Brock, the eldest, is a goal keeper for Oglethorpe University’s soccer team, while Connor holds places on his high school’s varsity soccer, basketball and golf teams. They were also both born with a genetic heart condition so severe it would require them to receive heart transplants within a year and a half of each other. A sudden shock On an April evening in 2008, Brock and Connor were killing time the way they normally did by tossing a baseball back and forth in the backyard of their upstate New York home. Connor grew tired of the game and went inside after Roscoe, the family’s dog, stole the ball for the third time. With Connor gone, no one was there to see Brock, then 14 years old, drop to the ground without warning. A few minutes later Margot, the brother’s stepmother, noticed him outside, unmoving, while Roscoe licked at his face. She called out to him, and when she got no response, she ran outside, still shouting his name at his unmoving body. Then, almost as suddenly as he collapsed, Brock woke up—but he wasn’t himself. Connor, Smitty and Brock “I don’t remember anything now, but I guess I came to screaming and fighting,” he says. “From what everyone tells me, I was shouting and convulsing with my eyes rolling back in head.” Marg...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: All posts Our patients’ stories Sports & exercise Teen health congential heart defect Elizabeth Blume heart transplant Pediatric Transplant Center (PTC) Source Type: news