Taking Steps For Liam Lyon

Below is a story published on April 26th, 2012 by Rachel McNeil of KPRC.  Please read and see how Shawn's Anomaly is helping this family:

William Lyon of Tulsa, Okla., nicknamed "Liam," has spent nearly every day of his 14 months of life inside a hospital. But he has nearly 40,000 friends on Facebook pulling for him.

Susan started Liam's main Facebook page, "I Love Liam Lyon," to keep friends and family around the country informed.His great-aunt, Susan Pickle, of Friendswood, told Local 2, "A lot of people have been on there. There's been a lot of people praying for him, and then it's just kind of snowballed on me."

Liam was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. It's a rare congenital condition where the left side of the heart doesn't develop properly.

Among other surgeries, Liam had a heart transplant when he was 5 months old.

The family thought he was out of the woods, but he developed more complications.

Pickle explained, "Currently, he is having problems with fluid balance in his belly. He's retaining fluid. He's got some breathing issues with his lungs and he's got some kidney issues."

His family said they've been told that doctors at the Tulsa hospital where Liam is now, can't do anything more to help him.

But they refuse to give up.

They're trying to find a team of specialists in the Texas Medical Center who will agree to oversee the high level of care he needs.

Pickle said, "The boy's got a chance if he can do that. He's strong and he's proven time and time again that he can come back and, you know, we want a chance to give him that chance."

Pickle said, "There's some kind of a connection there that you make almost as soon as you look at him. You want to be a part of it and you want to help."

Because the mission of Shawn's Anomaly is provide education, hope, and help to the 1-in-30 families that are affected by congenital anomalies, we are doing what we can do to help this family get Liam to Texas.  The Children's Hospital at St. Francis has done an amazing job caring for Liam, and they should be praised for everything they have been able to do.  We want to thank all of the doctors and staff that have helped Liam with his amazing journey to this point.

We are now taking the first step as Shawn's Anomaly to provide assistance to Liam's family.  We have witnessed miracle in Liam's life since we were introduced to his case, and we look forward to helping any way that we can.  

Please continue to follow this story.  We are doing everything we can on the limited resources.  Your support for our mission will greatly help us to continue to provide assistance to other families like Liam's, but it takes a lot to keep this mission going.  We hope that you please consider donating to our efforts.

Work Cited:

McNeill, Rachel. www.click2houston.com. 26 April 2012. 8 June 2012

Update 8/29/2012

Liam received a transfer to Cincinatti Children's Hospital where he is undergoing some state of the art treatment by a team of doctors led by Dr. Felipe Morales are working around the clock to take care of Liam.  More updates to come!

Update 9/3/2012  

Unfortunately or little "Lyon Heart" is no longer with us.  Please see blog posting: http://shawnsanomaly.blogspot.com/2012/09/in-memory-of-liam-lyon.html