By Crystal Dickelman
When it comes to wrestling you are more of family than just teammates and this was definitely brought to light when Lennox High School wrestlers started a fundraiser for their Head Wrestling coach Blake Crosby’s son Crue. Crue’s Crew shirts have been on sale to help raise funds for medical expenses for Crue.
Crue Crosby was born earlier this year and has had a difficult start compared to other babies born in 2020. Blake and Amy Crosby found out when they were just 20 weeks pregnant with Crue that he had a large ventricular septal defect or VSD for short. VSD is a hole in the heart and is usually present at birth. After finding the congential heart defect, the high risk doctor encouraged the Crosbys to do genetic screening. Genetic screening for Crue at the time meant a lab draw for Amy Crosby. Through this screening you can detect genetic abnormalities in the baby’s blood through Amy’s blood. The screening determined that Crue has Trisomy 21 or Down Syndrome.
Since his arrival Crue has had to stay in the NICU for six weeks exactly and then was flown down to Omaha Children’s hospital to have his VSD surgically repaired. To perform the repair, Crue underwent open heart surgery on January 12. Crue is still in Omaha while he recovers and should be discharged in the next week or two.
After this major surgery Crue’s future is still a bright one and more than likely won’t include more surgeries. According to his parents, Crue will follow up with a cardiologist for regular checkups.
Blake and Amy Crosby would like people to know that congenital heart defects are extremely common and many times go unnoticed till a patient has issues with them. Being a cardiac nurse, Amy Crosby stated, “We fix various holes in hearts (different than this) of people of all ages.”
The Crosbys are just thankful they knew about Crue’s heart defect and were able to plan for his delivery, follow-up and surgery.
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