Lennon Somerville's Story of Care
Lennon’s mom, dad, and grandmother all say the same thing about the 11-day vigil they spent at his bedside in our Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit, fearing for his young life.
“It was the best possible experience we could have been given during one of the most horribly frightening times of our lives.”
As soon as Lennon was born, caregivers at his delivery hospital knew that something was very wrong. Pinpointing the exact problem required testing and anxious waiting for his new parents. After what seemed like hours of testing, Lennon's exact problem was pinpointed, Transposition of the Great Arteries, a condition that, without life-saving surgery, would mean that Lennon would not live more than a few days.
He was immediately rushed to our hospital by ambulance and, that night, he received the first of two life-saving procedures that returned him to health.
Although Lennon will never recall the time he spent at our hospital, his family members cannot say enough good things about the compassionate care that helped Lennon fight for his young life.
About Lennon
- Loves music, dancing, books, balls and cars
- Knows his shapes
- Loves to run and play
- Counts to ten
- Gets along with baby sister, Ophelia, like a "house on fire"
More about Lennon's Story
 Lennon's Mom Shares Her Perspective
When Lennon was born, we noticed that he looked gray and puffy. But we were so excited to be new parents that it didn’t immediately click how seriously ill he was. It took several hours while we anxiously awaited news before we knew what was wrong.
The physicians explained to us that Lennon's arteries were sending things in the wrong directions from his heart. The delivery hospital knew that very few places in the area provided the care Lennon would need to save his life.
Their preference was that he receive care at Children's Hospital Los Angeles because of their high degree of expertise with his condition. They loaded Lennon into the ambulance with my husband, Andrew, following behind.
Having just given birth, I wasn't ready to be relesed. As you can imagine, I spent the entire night worrying about Lennon. Andrew called me regularly once he got to Childrens and told me how supportive everyone at the hospital was. He was absolutely certain that Lennon was in the very best hands.
The doctors at Childrens knew that Lennon would need surgery, but they wanted to give him a chance to grow stronger. Instead of immediately doing surgery on Lennon, they performed a cardiology procedure first.
Lennon's cardiologist, Dr. Ahdoot called me at the hospital after the procedure to let me know how well it went. Dr. Ahdoot had already spoken with Andrew about the procedure, but the fact that he went out of his way to contact me personally to let me know that Lennon was OK meant so much to me.
The next day, when my mom flew in on an emergency flight and brought me to Childrens Hospital, I could tell immediately that the care that the nurses were giving Lennon was all the right care – the best care.
When he was 6 days old, Dr. Starnes performed open heart surgery, switching the arteries of his tiny heart so that they connected to the right places. Before he went into surgery, each of us got the chance to hold him.
He had been connected to tubes and a ventilator the entire time that he had been at the hospital, so none of us had actually held him yet. Although the nurses did not tell us then, we realized later that, if he didn’t make it, they wanted us to be able to have a chance to hold him in our arms while he was still alive. They made sure that we all got a chance to do that.
Our feeling going into the surgery was pretty dismal. It had seemed that this kid had never been able to catch a break. Every time a physician came back it had always been with more bad news. This time though, we were delighted to have the doctors return with the news that the surgery went very well and that they expected him to be fine and recover well. We were ecstatic!
After the surgery, what we were amazed by was how closely the staff worked with us to make some very critical decisions about Lennon's care.
We felt, all the time, that every single person we worked with bent over backwards for us. The staff were flexible with answers - answers that I am sure they had repeated hundreds of times. But when we asked, they answered as if this was their first time answering. We were simply amazed by everything that everyone did for us. It truly was an amazing journey.
The Little Things
“We shared a lot of meals in the hospital’s cafeteria. And one thing that amazed me was that I would see Lennon’s doctor in the cafeteria and he would not only speak to me, but he would greet me by name.
I’ve been a teacher for ten years and when you see a great many faces coming and going in your life, its tough to remember everyone’s name.
But the fact that our doctors remembered who we were, meant that we were more than just faces - they were really paying attention to us and they were focused on who we were as a family.”
Andrew Somerville - Lennon's Dad
 When Lennon was born, what quickly became obvious was the note of concern in the voices of the doctors and nurses. Instead of high-fives and bottles of champagne, we got to take a quick picture of Lennon and then he was whisked right off to the delivery hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The pit in our stomachs grew as we sat in the birthing room, listening to the sounds of families coming to visit other happy, healthy newborns down the hall and knowing that our situation was not as good as these other families. But we didn’t know why . . . yet.
What followed was a string of mini-conferences with Lennon's doctors. These meetings became demoralizing because each time they met with us we were given an array of options of what might be wrong with Lennon. Each time they returned with an update, it always turned out that Lennon had what had been labelled the “worst case scenario” in our prevoius mini-conference.
When they pinpointed a diagnosis of Transposition of the Great Arteries, the doctors explained to us that Lennon needed surgeries, and that they had to happen right away.
The decision was made that Lennon needed to go to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles to receive his care. Melissa had just given birth and wasn’t strong enough to leave the hospital. But we couldn’t send Lennon off alone, so I left Melissa to follow the ambulance and accompany Lennon to this new hospital.
This point when I had to drive away from Melissa and follow the ambulance to Childrens Hospital with no family there to comfort either of us – this was one of the worst times of the entire experience. It sounds so silly – it was just a half-hour car ride and I was going to be on the phone with Melissa as often as possible after I arrived, but this was the toughest half hour we experienced.
When I got to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, I was lost and confused and incredibly worried. But I was met by cardiologist, Joseph Ahdoot, MD, right away and handled by him and all of the hospital's staff with kid gloves from the moment that I arrived to the moment that we took Lennon home.
Lennon needed two procedures, the first of which occurred immediately after he arrived at Childrens. Dr. Ahdoot really put my mind at ease about both of these procedures. He explained what the procedure would accomplish and the fact that this hospital performs 20-40 of these per year – more than any other institution in the country. To tell you the truth, I didn’t realize how common Lennon's condition was.
When the time came for the main procedure – the open heart surgery – a term that took the wind right out me – we sat outside the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit (CTICU), held Lennon for a brief bit, and then watched him get taken away.
Outside the CTICU, there are plaques of thanks to Childrens Hospital for the care provided for other children who had needed intensive heart treatment before Lennon. I have no reference of how long we sat there. I know I spoke to a few people, but mostly, it just felt like hours looking at those plaques.
After the surgery, Dr. Ahdoot came walking back up the corridor to meet with us. That moment, when he came up to us and told us that everything went well with the surgery performed by Vaughn Starnes, MD, that the surgery had gone better than expected, was a real turning point for us. We were all very emotional, and I think I held on to Dr. Adhoot for dear life.
When he got back from surgery, Lennon looked like he’d gone through the wars, but, day by day, he moved closer to the point when he could move out of the CTICU. We were still holding our breath, but eventually, he grew well enough to go home with us and is now a healthy little boy.
A Few Happy Moments
"There were two truly happy moments that I remember at Childrens.
"The first was when Melissa was able to hold Lennon for the first time – still with the wires and tubes all over him – but they settled him in with a large cushion on her lap. The look on her face when she finally got to hold him – it was to look at the happiest girl on earth - finally getting that mother-baby bonding moment that, under normal circumstances, she would have gotten immediately after delivery.
"The second one was the moment that Melissa and I were putting Lennon in the car to take him home - finally ready to take our baby home."
Answering Our Questions
At a time like this you have nothing but tons of questions flying around your head and the more time you have alone at your child’s bedside the more questions come.
To be honest, many of them are selfish questions. You want to know if your kid is going to be normal, if he will live a full, healthy life. You wonder about how your child’s care might impact your own life. You want to know answers to these questions so badly that you ask these selfish questions and feel a bit guilty about it, but it doesn’t stop you from asking.
And what was so amazing to me is that the staff answered all of the questions that we had for them. The nurses and, literally, everybody we worked with, were stunningly fantastic – I can’t sing their praises enough.
Find out more about our award-winning nursing care
Mary Kalitzky - Lennon's Grandmother
“As soon as I could get to Los Angeles, I went straight to Melissa's side so she could be discharged. We had a good laugh about the fact that she still couldn’t do anything without mom’s help - we had to find things to laugh about at that moment because we were all so scared about Lennon.
Once we got to Childrens Hospital, we stayed as long as we could. Then, we all began taking shifts at his bedside.
Of course, we were never without caring nurses and doctors right by our sides. I was amazed by the fact that, even though I was “just the grandma," the nurses and caregivers included me in on the things that they were doing with him. I just can’t say enough about each and every one of them.
When it was time to do the surgery, we all knew that it needed to be done. But when we took our turns holding Lennon, it was very hard to let him go. It wasn’t until afterwards, after the surgery was over that I thought ‘Oh, I know why they let us hold him . . . it was just in case . . .’
I found the care that all of the nurses gave to all of the babies there was just amazing. At one point, the nurses got called out to help a family who had just lost one of their little ones on the unit and you could tell that the nurses were fighting back tears. You could see how that each of these kids became such a big part of their lives.
And, when Lennon got to move out of the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit because he had recovered well enough to leave, it was just as big of a celebration for them as it was for us.
All of the caregivers were just wonderful human beings to all of us and to all of the families there."
Find out more about our award-winning nurses
A Chapel For Families
 “Thank god they have a chapel at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.” - Mary Kalitzky
When we found out about Lennon’s diagnosis, I felt a deep sadness that this had happened to him and that he would have to go through so much as a result.
The hospital's chapel became a place that I could visit to work through some of the things like this that I was thinking and feeling.
I went to mass every day and it became a comforting place that helped me at a time when I felt that being closer to God was what I needed. Find out more about our Spiritual Care Services Program
Lennon's Story According to Dr. Ahdoot
 Lennon Somerville's care is a perfect example of outstanding collaboration between the physicians at community hospitals and their specialist counterparts at a tertiary hospital such as Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
Lennon was born at St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica. Almost immediately after birth, the staff noticed that he was having trouble getting enough oxygen to his body.
The delivery hospital staff did a great job of evaluating and stabilizing Lennon's vital signs so that his condition did not deteriorate any further. The neonatal team at his hospital did all of the testing necessary to determine his diagnosis - a very rare and complex form of congenital heart disease called Transposition of the Great Arteries.
Given the complexity of Lennon's heart disorder, I immediately recommended that he be transferred to Children's Hospital Los Angeles as soon as possible.
Childrens Hospital's Heart Institute currently has the largest pediatric heart center in the Los Angeles area and has had the best outcomes for chldren with complex cardiac issues like what Lennon was facing.
Almost immediately upon arrival at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Lennon was readied for his first cardiac procedure. This involved creating an opening between the two upper chambers of his heart to allow the oxygenated blood to mix with the blood that was oxygen-poor. This procedure, called a balloon atrial septostomy was very successful and the oxygen delivery to Lennon's body improved very quickly.
He stabilized over the next 48 hours and was prepared to have his surgical repair procedure performed. His cardiac surgery, the arterial switch procedure, was performed by Dr. Vaughn Starnes - one of the premier neonatal cardiac surgeons in the country.
Thanks to Dr. Starnes and the outstanding team of doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and respiratory therapists at Childrens Hospital, Lennon had a very uneventful recovery once his arterial switch procedure was completed. He recovered from his surgery quickly and was discharged home without any serious complications.
Lennon is now a delightful little boy who is able to play and interact with his friends like any other child. He comes to see me once each year to make sure that his heart is remaining in great health. His prognosis is excellent and I believe he will live a happy and healthy life.
A Few Happy Moments
"There were two truly happy moments that I remember at Childrens.
"The first was when Melissa was able to hold Lennon for the first time – still with the wires and tubes all over him – but they settled him in with a large cushion on her lap. The look on her face when she finally got to hold him – it was to look at the happiest girl on earth - finally getting that mother-baby bonding moment that, under normal circumstances, she would have gotten immediately after delivery.
"The second one was the moment that Melissa and I were putting Lennon in the car to take him home - finally ready to take our baby home."
Lennon's Story According to Dr. Starnes
 Transposition of the Great Arteries is a very serious diagnosis. Without surgical intervention and intensive care to help him make it through his first few days of life, Lennon Somerville would not be alive.
Our collaboration with the Division of Cardiology through the Heart Institute meant that Lennon was able to have the first stage of his procedure provided for him, literally, upon arrival.
Infants are often born with a naturally-occurring hole between their two top heart chambers. This hole usually closes within the first days of birth.
In Lennons’ case, Dr. Ahdoot intervened to prevent that hole from closing and actually opened it up further. Keeping this hole open allowed the blood from the two sides of the heart to mix, increasing Lennon’s chances of his being able to live for a few days to gain strength ahead of his open-heart surgery.
My job, as the surgeon, was to sever Lennon's major arteries and reattach them to the other sides of the heart so that blood would be sent the right direction and oxygen would be delivered to the rest of Lennon’s body to keep him alive.
Open heart surgery involves temporarily stopping the heart, performing the surgical intervention, and then restarting the heart. Because the arterial switch procedure takes place in the first few days of a child’s life, Lennon’s heart was the size of an egg, and the main arteries were much smaller than they might be on an adult. The degree of skill of our surgical teams and the precision with which we must maneuver is of supreme importance.
As a co-director of the Heart Institute and Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at USC, our institutions remain at the cutting-edge of healthcare treatments. It has been my pleasure to be able to sit before families and give them hope that, not only can something be done for their child, but that our great team of specialists and compassionate caregivers will walk them through every step of the way.
About Lennon's Diagnosis
The heart is often referred to as the “pump” of the body. And it’s design is such that, with each contraction or “pump,” it sends blood to two places. Under normal conditions, one side of the heart receives blood from the body that has collected waste gases and is ready to be exchanged for oxygen. This blood is pumped directly into the lungs to obtain the oxygen it needs. When the blood from the lungs returns to the heart, it flows to the other side of the heart in order to get pumped out to the rest of the body.
However, Lennon’s diagosis of Transposition of the Great Arteries meant that, in his case, and for other infants with his diagnosis, his body was doing the exact opposite. It was sending the oxygen-rich blood right back to the lungs over and over again. And blood that would come into the heart depleted of oxygen would get sent back to the body without more oxygen in it.
The arterial switch procedure helps us reverse the direction of the blood flow and set everything on the correct course for oxygen to be delivered to the body.
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