Moses Lake baby struggles to live

MOSES LAKE — When Whitney Nichols hears her 1-month-old baby having trouble breathing, it's hard not to panic.

"All the sudden he just screams extremely loud," she said. "He looks as though he's gasping for air."

Her baby boy Adrian suffers from Atrial Septal Defect and Pulmonary Stenosis, a hereditary disease his mother suffered from when she was a baby. Adrian has a hole in the upper right chamber of his heart and a valve going to his heart is thickening.

Eventually the valve will close and he will die if he doesn't get it repaired with open heart surgery before turning 2 years old.

"If he doesn't have (the operation) he is going to die," she said.

When she learned what his prognosis was, she cried. She wasn't sure what to do.

The family is raising money for the operation. She does not know the total cost of the operation but understands it is several thousand dollars. The family can't afford the operation by themselves and are turning to the community for help.

An account is set up at Sterling Savings Bank in Moses Lake in Adrian's name for those who wish to donate. Donation cans are at multiple Moses Lake businesses including Jerry's Auto Supply, Papa Murphy's and Les Schwab Tire Center.

Looking at Adrian, you wouldn't think anything is wrong with him, she explained.

"He's a very quiet, content baby, he's a cute little guy," Nichols said. "He weighs about 12 pounds, he's bald (and) he eats like crazy."

To look at him, one would never guess Adrian faces multiple surgeries to stay alive.

He endures routine heart catheterizations to keep his heart working. Catheterization involves inserting a balloon into the thickening valve to prevent it from closing, she explained.

Whitney and her husband Joshua have three other children together, born free of the defect.

For the past four generations the defect has afflicted her family.

She thought the hereditary disease had stopped because her first three children were born healthy.

"It's kind of devastating for the family," she said. "The gene continues. It would have ended, now we have to worry about his kids."

If Adrian survives to adulthood, he faces the dilemma of passing on the same gene to his children.