Superhero throws out one of first pitches on ‘Superhero Night’
TROY » When looking at the blonde haired, bright blue eyed two-year old Connor Daddario, you would think he was just like any other curious, little boy at his first baseball game Thursday night.
Unfortunately, you’d be wrong in that assumption.
“‘Something is wrong with your baby,’ — that’s the last somebody wants to hear,” said Courtney Daddario, Connor’s mother.
Connor was diagnosed with atrioventricular septal ventricular defect — an improperly developed atrial and ventricular septa and adjoining valves in his heart 23 weeks into Courtney’s pregnancy for him just a little over two years ago.
“I didn’t know what to think,” said Matt Daddario, Connor’s father. “Seeing her so upset, made me so upset. We realized we needed to wait and figure out was really going on.”
By the time Connor was a year old, he had open heart surgery. It all started with a blip. At 23 weeks into her pregnancy, that blip was found during one of Courtney’s ultrasounds for Connor. The blip eventually turned into a statistic that Courtney was not ready to hear.
“They saw the blip and asked me to come back,” said Courtney. “They sent me to a high risk specialist for the blip to be looked at in depth. He found out it was in fact more complicated than it was. That’s when they diagnosed him with atrioventricular septal ventricular defect and a cleft artery.”
A missed diagnosis from that first specialist had given Connor a 50/50 chance of surviving.
“We met with our cardiologist who made the statistics a little bit better for Connor,” said Courtney.
Once Courtney and Matt had met with their own cardiologist, he assured them that Connor’s chance of surviving was higher than originally predicted, though, not without some work.
Connor was born healthy and was under supervision of hospital staff. Connor’s surgeon had decided that before the surgery could take place, Connor needed to gain some weight.
“Once he hit six months old they saw he was gaining weight steadily finally,” said Courtney. “They thought he was doing well, he’s holding off, let’s wait until he turns one.”
Connor turned one on July 1, 2017. Connor’s surgery was performed July 13, 2017.
“We just celebrated his one-year ‘heart-a-versary’ last week,” said Courtney. “It’s been a journey.”
As of right now, Connor is growing, learning, and he loves sports.
“If anything, I wouldn’t mind seeing him be a golfer,” said Matt when asked what sports Connor will be taking up in the future. “He loves to golf — or baseball.”
Cue the Tri-City ValleyCats, who invited Connor to throw out one of the ceremonial first pitches Thursday night on Superhero night at the field almost exactly a year after his surgery.
“It’s touching,” said ValleyCats manager Jason Bell. “It really puts into perspective for us what we do and how lucky we really are. Sometimes we can take it for granted — I try my best to not do that — but it is still hard.”
Connor was a representative of the Cardiac Kids Group of the American Heart Association. The Cardiac Kids group provides children born with congenital heart defects the opportunity to spend time together, support one another, and learn from each other.
“He’s two years old and he has already had open heart surgery,” said American Heart Association Senior Regional Director Katherine McCarthy. “You look at Connor and he is just resilient. If he walked by you, you would have never known anything had happened.”
Connor was able to cheer the ValleyCats onto a 7-3 win over the Brooklyn Cyclones thanks to two-RBI games from Alex McKenna and Gilberto Celestino.
The future is Connor’s to take now. It is a possibility that surgeries could come in the future, but it is not a concern right now for the Daddarios.
I mean, Connor is a superhero after all.
Not one that can lift cars above his head, or fly to save the old lady from the burning building. But, a superhero that can have open heart surgery before the age of two, and still be able to live every day with excitement in his eye and a smile on his face.