BY CHRISTINA ORLOVSKY SAGE When 5-year-old Sage Blake walked into his first day of transitional kindergarten last fall, his mother Kimberly was there alongside other teary-eyed parents wav- ing goodbye to their kids as they em - From surgery to skateboarding, Sage Blake won’t let anything slow him down
barked on a new chapter. However, unlike a lot of the other moms who were sad to see their babies growing up, Kimberly was crying tears of joy, watching her big boy walk bravely into the classroom for the first time. “For a long time, we didn’t think Sage would ever be able to go to school”, Kim - berly recalls. “In the past five years, there have been so many milestones I never thought we would get to see.” When Kimberly was five-and-a-half months pregnant, she learned her baby had a double aortic arch, a congenital heart defect that results in a second artery that extends from the heart and wraps around the trachea and esophagus. This can lead to difficulty breathing and swallowing. Kimberly, who already had a high-risk pregnancy due to her own epi - lepsy, now had further complications to worry about. Three weeks before her due
SUMMER 2023 HEALTHY KIDS MAGAZINE 15
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker