Noah Smith of Talcott was born in 2015 with a life threatening heart condition called Tetralogy of Fallot. He was diagnosed with four heart defects, including a hole in his heart and an obstruction from the heart to the lungs, plus other complications which required that he have life changing surgery before the age of one year. When Noah was barely weeks old he had his first heart surgery to have a shunt inserted so his pulmonary arteries could pass proper blood flow to his lungs and throughout his body. What was supposed to be a four or five hour surgery turned into almost nine hours. “I look at him and I see a miracle in more ways than one,” Noah’s mother, Tonya, wrote in a GoFundMe account created to raise funds for Noah’s heart surgery at the time.
Oct. 15, 2018, was Noah’s third birthday, and marked a huge celebration of three years fighting and winning against congenital heart defects, or CHD. Noah’s parents Marvin and Tonya Smith, together with Noah’s older brother Blake, continue to provide Noah with the specialized care he needs. “He is full of life and wonder,” states his mother.
But the family struggles to stay ahead of travel and hotel expenses for Noah’s frequent and sometimes lengthy stays at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, PA, and to Hurricane, WV, to an out-patient therapy facility for physical, occupational, and two aspects of speech: communication and oral stimulation therapy sessions. Funding support continues to be required.
In response a Benefit for Noah has been organized, and on Saturday, Dec. 8, a baked steak dinner and a live and silent auction event will be held at Talcott Elementary School in Talcott. The dinner, prepared by members of Oak Grove Church, starts at 3 p.m., and the live and silent auction begins at 6 p.m.
Community members are encouraged to come to the event, and to contribute to items for auction as well as food offerings for the dinner. Donors are asked to call Sarina at 304-661-4252 or Janet at 304-661-2066. Volunteers are also needed to help with the event, including set up, working the dinner and auction and to clean up. Monetary donations may be made directly to the “Noah Smith Foundation” account at any Bank of Monroe location.
“It’s always a celebration when we’re able to go home, reuniting our family of four under one roof again and again,” writes Tonya on Noah’s Heart Journey Facebook page. “[We] pray this third year is full of amazing memories at home.”