Luke Atkins

Luke has always had trouble breathing, which we thought he would outgrow. And he has done his best to not let this stop him, he even enjoys running. In November he caught a cold that he couldn't shake which led to us getting more tests to see why he wasnt breathing ok again.  Our quest led us to Colorado Children hospital in Denver.  As his symptoms were something new to them, the team (which consisted of a ent, pulmonary dr, and gastrointestinal dr) decided to do a bronchial scope. They found that Lukes left bronchial tube was almost totally blocked. A CT scan showed that his pulmonary artery was wrapped around his bronchial tube, basically strangling it. Its called a pulmonary sling artery, and normally they find these when kids are little. The cardio thoracic dr said that he is totally impressed with Lukes strength to do all he does. 
The surgery to fix this is open heart surgery.  They will go in, open his chest bone, cut the artery and reattach it where it belongs. As the artery is stretched they will cut the artery down to fit. After the surgery his bronchial tubes will open some, but as they have been squished for 13 years it remains to be seen if they will open completely on their own. The drs will watch this in the future.  
Luke will be in the hospital between 6-8 days and then head home a few days later. They claim he should be able to get back to his running in 6 weeks.