In November 2015, Leonidas was at a doctor's appointment for another checkup in regards to possibly having strep throat again.  During this visit the PA listened to his heart, as they normally do, and wanted us to take Leonidas to Children's for a more extensive check on what she heard.  Dr. McCaffrey, Leo's Pediatric Cardiologist, ran a variety of tests and exams and determined once the results came in that Leo needed to have open-heart surgery relatively quickly.  Leonidas was diagnosed with a coarctation of his right aorta and it would need to be repaired immediately.  Leo had his heart procedure on December 11th at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.  Dr. Mahesh Sharma was his surgeon and he performed a resection of the coarctation and an end-to-end anastomosis.  We were at Children's for 7 days and to see the strength and courage that Leo had was a true inspiration to be around.

After a year of checkups and constant testing, Leo was cleared for normal activities.  Leo enjoys wrestling and soccer in the fall and baseball in the summer.