Macomb County’s Heart Warrior
By Nick Lico
For Macomb Township’s Jason and Laura Kleinow, the excitement of expecting their first child turned into concern about halfway through the pregnancy. “When I was five months pregnant I had an anatomy scan. It showed that we were expecting a boy and I was told I had to come back a week later because there were complications with the pregnancy,” Laura Kleinow said.
She was working at Troy Beaumont Hospital in the cardiology department at the time and realized the seriousness of the matter when doctors consulted with each other prior to sharing their findings with the expectant parents.
“I prayed to God to give to me, rather than to Gage, whatever the issue was,” she added. The “issue” was a congenital heart condition called truncus arteriosus, a rare disorder that occurs in one out of nearly 16,000 live births. Truncus arteriosus means that Gage was born with one large blood vessel leading out of the heart, instead of two.
As explained on the Mayo Clinic website, patients like Gage have only one large blood vessel, which means that oxygen-poor and oxygen-rich blood mix. This mixing reduces the amount of oxygen delivered to the body. It typically increases the amount of blood flow into the lungs, meaning the heart has to work harder to adjust for the changes in blood flow.
“Gage had to have three separate surgeries to help fix his condition. The first surgery was to put in a conduit and fix the hole he had in his heart – called a ventricular septal defect. The second surgery was because the conduit was leaking and during the third surgery doctors put in a stent in his right artery,” Laura added.
The first surgery took place when Gage was only four days old. The second when he was seven months old and the third one three months later. “The whole first year was a blur,” Jason Kleinow said.
Gage was also born with a cleft palate in the roof of his mouth and required two surgeries to resolve that condition. As a result, he has had trouble hearing and has needed many sets of ear tubes. Today he wears Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids.
Considering the many medical issues, one would expect Gage to have a gloomy disposition, especially considering that, unlike his football-playing younger brother, Myles, Gage has to avoid any kind of contact sport. Which is why spending even a few minutes with Gage is so refreshing.
This writer spent time over the summer giving Gage golf lessons and his positive attitude, bright smile and warm personality are infectious, which is why it’s not surprising that Gage was recently selected to be the American Heart Association’s Macomb Ambassador to represent heart kids. In February, Gage will visit various Macomb County schools to talk about his heart condition and what he’s been through.
When asked about his favorite activities, the 10-year-old replied, “I like playing video games, being creative, making comics and books. I also like playing catch with my father and brother.”
Gage wants to be a professional golfer or coach one day and he loves to read. Surgeries to increase the size of his conduit and stent are likely in the future. “Outside of his physical limitations, Gage is a great kid. He is such a people person. We say that he’s Gage being Gage,” Jason said.
