Le Bonheur Family Affair

My friends, Josh and Laura Grimes, have been given a nomination from Le Bonheur Children's Hospital to participate in their annual fundraising campaign, A Family Affair. They are competing against 2 other families to raise as much money as possible for the hospital over the next 8 weeks. At the end of the 8 weeks, the family who raises the most money will become the Miracle Maker Family of the Year, which will be announced at a celebratory dinner and silent auction. As they fundraise money over the next several weeks, they are asking their friends and family to help raise money to benefit Le Bonheur. Henry is absolutely precious!!! I would love for my friends and blog readers to help this special family out! Josh works for the Memphis Police Department and Laura is a teacher. They love their son unconditionally and I couldn't pick a better family to represent Le Bonheur Children's Hospital and the city of Memphis! If you have ANY questions concerning this matter, feel free to email ME or you can email Laura at lauranellgrimes@gmail.com. Also, please read Henry's story at the bottom, so you can learn a little more about this special family! :) 

Josh, Henry, and Laura Grimes 

sweet,sweet Henry 

Henry's Story 

Recently our family was privileged to receive a nomination from Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital to participate in their annual fundraising campaign, A Family Affair. We are honored to be chosen for this event, and we are asking for your support as we raise as much money as we can over the next eight weeks to be named Le Bonheur’s Miracle Maker Family of the Year for 2014.

We welcomed our first child, Henry Everett Grimes, on an early Monday morning last March. As new parents, we were ecstatic after the arrival of our son, but were shocked and devastated when two days later, Henry’s pediatrician discovered a heart murmur and sent him for an echocardiogram. Henry was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect, at only 2 days old. Tetralogy of Fallot is a critical congenital heart defect consisting of four different heart defects: a large ventricular septal defect, pulmonary stenosis, right ventricular hypertrophy, and an overriding aorta.

Henry’s cardiologist shared the news with us, and told us that our newborn son would have open-heart surgery when he was three months old to repair his congenital heart defect. Bringing our newborn son home from the hospital that day should have been a very happy occasion, but it became very emotional as we processed the news of our son’s diagnosis.

Congenital heart defects are the number one birth defect and affect one in every 100 babies born, yet many people are unaware of this fact. We certainly weren’t prepared for our newborn son, Henry, to be 1 in 100.

On June 9, we checked in to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital to prepare for Henry’s open-heart surgery the next morning. From the moment that we met Henry’s surgeon, cardiologist, and nurses, we knew that Henry would be in great hands. Henry’s surgeon, Dr. Christopher Knott-Craig, was among the best pediatric heart surgeons in the country and being able to have Henry treated in our hometown offered our family and friends the opportunity to support us.

Henry’s surgery went much faster than we anticipated, and his surgeon, Dr. Knott-Craig, told us it was a perfect repair. Many children born with Tetralogy of Fallot require a valve replacement surgery later in life. However, we were told that Henry has a 90 percent chance that he will not need another surgery as he grows.

Henry spent 6 days at Le Bonheur after his surgery, and was discharged the Saturday before Father’s Day. It was the best Father’s Day present that Josh could have asked for, and certainly made his first Father’s Day a memorable one.

While in the hospital, Henry earned the nickname, “Henry the Braveheart.” All heart babies are Bravehearts, and their resiliency and courage to be brave and strong throughout their heart journeys is inspiring.  We started Team Braveheart this past fall to join together all of the Le Bonheur heart families at the Pumpkin Run to walk and run in honor of our heart heroes.

Le Bonheur is a family, and we felt that the doctors and nurses took care of Henry like he was their own son. We were very much included in his care each day in the hospital.  We are so grateful for the care that Henry received while at Le Bonheur that saved his life and we want to give back to the hospital that has given our family so much.

We are continuing a family tradition of giving back to Le Bonheur. Laura’s great grandparents were involved in raising money to build Le Bonheur. Ruth Barton Pidgeon was the president of Le Bonheur Club in 1945 and her husband, James Everett Pidgeon, Sr., served on the first board of directors for the hospital.

Our family hopes to raise as much money as we can by March 27. We are on our way and with your support we know we can do it! Thank you for all that you have done for our family thus far. We cherish the fact that we have been able to share Henry’s story.