A Fort Hood soldier’s baby with a rare heart condition is home in Harker Heights recovering from a second open heart surgery. Billy Leasure Jr. has Heterotaxy Syndrome, a condition where organs are duplicated or appear on the opposite side of the body.
In December, Billy only weighed about 10 pounds because he was burning calories too quickly. Now, just about four weeks after his open heart surgery, he has gained four pounds and Billy is enjoying baby food too.
But the second open heart surgery and the recovery in the days after did not come without some tense moments.
"They had to stop his heart to actually do the procedure. They call it bypass, so they put him on bypass so they could properly work on his heart," Captain Bill Leasure said, about the 14-hour operation.
Captain Leasure is with the 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment on Fort Hood. Doctors stopped Billy's heart to do what's called the Glenn Procedure, rerouting blood flow from the brain to the lungs and then to the heart. Leasure called the surgery grueling, but he said he and his wife, Elisa, were in the best place for Billy at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.
"So he’s kind of got half a circuit right now, so half of the blood in his body doesn’t get oxygenated like it should," he said.
According to Leasure, the doctors were meticulous exploring his heart anatomy.
“He physically went in there and took measurements," Leasure said of the doctor.
They were also careful with each stitch, according to Billy's dad. He was in recovery for about 8 days with some struggles along the way—especially 5 tense moments when he turned blue.
"Me and my wife would have to actually hit the code Red button to bring all the nurses in which was a scary, scary thing to be there with your child and them lose all the color and a storm of people run into the room to resuscitate your baby," Leasure said.
Leasure described how doctors brought Billy back.
"They put a bag over his face--they call it bagging him--they put a little mask over his nose and mouth and they squeeze a bag to squeeze oxygen into their lungs, brings them back. It forces them to breathe and they did that a few times," he said.
The Fort Hood soldier recalls the time when he stopped turning blue.
“I remember the first time he didn’t do it me and the nurse were like, and I was patting him like Billy breathe, breathe, breathe. He did the thing where he was like 'ahh,' you know, so he continued.”
For now, Billy is home kicking and growing big and enjoying music like songs by Johnny Cash and playing with siblings.
"To give him his toys, make him happy, make him smile at me," said big sister Amy.
Without a spleen, the family makes sure Billy stays healthy and germ-free.
"We don’t really go out too much with him because we want to protect him these first couple years so he doesn’t get an infection that his body might not be able to fight off, he said.
Billy will be on antibiotic until he’s at least five-years-old. He will have a third open heart surgery called the Fontan procedure when’s he’s about two or four.