TikTok favorite Elyse Myers reveals her 4-month-old son needs heart surgery
TikTok favorite Elyse Myers recently told followers that her 4-month-old son, Oliver, will undergo heart surgery soon, sharing that doctors discovered a “very large hole” in his heart during a “routine newborn checkup.”
At his 4-month checkup, Myers’ pediatrician “heard a little bit of a heart murmur.” According to Myers, the doctor said, “’You know, it’s probably nothing. We’ll just send you to cardiology so that he can get a little echocardiogram and confirm that it’s just an innocent murmur and he’ll grow out of it.'”
A few days later, at a follow-up appointment, “the tech found a very large hole in my son’s heart, between the bottom two chambers of his heart,” she says, adding, “It just doesn’t close.”
He was diagnosed with a ventricular septal defect (VSD), a hole in the heart that is present at birth, according to the Mayo Clinic. It changes how blood flows through the heart and lungs, which means the heart might have to work harder to pump blood. A small VSD might cause no issues and even close on its own, but a medium to large one, as Oliver has, requires surgery early in life to prevent future problems from arising. Myers says she was unaware Oliver was born with VSD.
“The next day, they called us and said, ‘Please bring him in. We’re going to give him a heart catheter so that we can really assess what’s going on,’” she continued. The catheter insertion, she noted, was “a pretty extensive procedure, but you’re in and out in the same day which is shocking.”
“And so Oliver is going to have heart surgery within the next couple of weeks,” she explained. “And the doctors are really confident that after the surgery, he will recover and grow right on track. They seem to think that this will not affect him in life later after this is all fixed up.”
It seems each day has brought the family new information, so Myers says she and her husband Jonas Myers “are handling it together and we’re leaning on each other.”
“But now that we’ve kind of gotten through all of the information and kind of have a good grasp on what’s going on, I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m not going to be updating everything the whole time, just the big ones,” she concluded. “We love you guys. It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay, he’s gonna be good and he’s gonna be good, we’re gonna be good.”
In the caption of her post, Myers gave thanks to her son’s care team, writing, “Thank you to everyone at Children’s Hospital for the incredible care you continue to give Oliver.”
The couple are also parents to son August, 3. We’re sending nothing but love and well wishes for a speedy recovery for Oliver, as well as to Elyse and Jonah as they navigate such an overwhelming time together.
