A son's gift to his Father: Adoption process leads man to life-saving heart surgery

It's dinnertime. Thomas Eckart is fidgeting in his chair. The 22-month-old is wearing an Elmo bib and having more fun smearing his carrots around his tray than he would if he was actually eating them.

His parents, George and Kristin Eckart, wouldn't have it any other way.

Thomas is full of energetic joy and that special inquisitiveness that comes with the territory of 2-year-olds.

Like many adopted children whose parents went to great lengths to include them in their lives, Thomas filled a gap in a family circle. He was an answer to a couple's prayers, a bundle of joy in the best sense of that phrase.

Thomas is also a lifesaver.

If his parents hadn't decided they wanted to adopt, his father wouldn't have had a routine health screen. And if he hadn't had that health screen, George Eckart's damaged heart valve might have gone undetected. He could have died a young man.

"Thomas really did save my life." George Eckart said. "I absolutely feel that way. Now I'll live long enough for him to know that."

A real shock

George and Kristin Eckart started the adoption process in late 2006. They filled out reams of paperwork for Carolina Adoption Services in Greensboro and saved for what can be an expensive proposition.

Just like the potential adoptees, the would-be parents also underwent physicals. Height, weight, blood pressure. Deep breath, cough and a quick finger stick to check the blood.

Like a lot of men his age -- he's 42 now -- George Eckart only went to get a physical when his wife told him to.

He was told that he might have a heart murmur and needed to have it checked by a specialist.

"I'd been in the Air Force and had OSHA physicals to do demolition work for the government," Eckart said. "It was a real shock."

An echocardiogram was scheduled at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center for Valentine's Day 2007.

While waiting for the appointment to roll around, the Eckarts had plenty of time to think. They thought back to a physical that George had had when he was young. A doctor had told his parents that George had an "echo in his rib cage," but it was written off as something he would grow out of because he was skinny.

It was much more serious than that. George Eckart had a leaking mitral valve, a fairly common genetic condition. Left untreated, though, a leaking valve can turn into big trouble. In some cases, it can be a killer.

So he went in for a thorough heart exam. He learned that he had a stage-four mitral-valve prolapse -- some of the blood that was supposed to cycle back into his heart through the leaky valve was sliding back into his lungs.

The longer he left it untreated, the more enlarged his heart would become and the greater risk to his health.

"I remember sitting there asking the nurse at Baptist ‘How's it look?' and when she didn't say anything, I kind of knew," Eckart said.

A choice to make

Because he wasn't experiencing any overt physical symptoms, Eckart had a decision to make. An avid bicyclist who could rip through 50-mile rides, he was in excellent health. One doctor advised postponing the surgery until he was older or developed symptoms.

"It's risky surgery," Eckart said. "They stop your heart for two hours and cut into it."

Fortunately, Eckart had the ultimate in health consultants: his brother, the cardiologist. "He said, ‘You will have surgery. It's just a matter of time. Do it now and you can pick the time and the place. If you're out on your bike somewhere in Davidson County, that's a whole different situation. You don't have any choices then.'"

Following his brother's advice, Eckart learned about Dr. Marc Gillinov, a cardiac surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. He learned that Gillinov could repair the leaking valve by using a robotic surgical instrument rather than having to crack his chest and replace the valve altogether.

"Next thing I know, I'm in Ohio in May getting a morphine drip watching the finals of American Idol," Eckart said.

Gillinov was able to repair the valve and fix a small hole in Eckart's heart that he found during the procedure.

"Statistically, his life expectancy should be even better than the U.S. Census data for American men," Gillinov said. "Better than that, his valve is repaired, and he can say, ‘I'm normal,' like the valve problem has been taken out of the equation. All he has to do now is have an echocardiogram once a year and he can forget about it for 364 days."

A blessing

With George's heart fixed, the Eckarts could get back to the business of adopting a child. They still had paperwork in front of them, as well as the in-home screening, but they couldn't help but feel that a corner had been turned.

In the next few months, George Eckart found a new job. He had been teaching in Guilford County since 2000, and in January 2008, he landed a job here setting up a pre-engineering curriculum.

He didn't have any kids in the classroom because he was preparing a new program and so he was able to fly with Kristen to Vietnam in April to meet their son.

The first time that they got to hold Thomas, the Eckarts experienced the feeling common to new parents everywhere: Wonder, awe, overwhelming responsibility and unconditional love. They brought Thomas home to Winston-Salem and began creating a life.

"Sometimes people will see Thomas -- they mean well, they really do -- and will say quietly to us, ‘You saved his life,'" Kristin Eckart said. "And we just think, no, he saved ours."

Since then, George Eckart has had plenty of time to reflect on the past and what's yet to come. He believes that God is control and that things happen for a reason.

If he hadn't had heart trouble, the timing would have been off and the Eckarts would have adopted a different child.

"Knowing Thomas and seeing him grow, he's just the perfect child for us," George Eckart said. "If not for all those experiences, he wouldn't be here with us now."

Like a lot of parents, the Eckarts are keeping a baby book of Thomas' extraordinary young life. His roots in Vietnam, his first steps, his adoptive family's history. And yes, the effect that his arrival had on his father.

"We read that little book to him," Eckart said while sharing a Popsicle with his little man. "He'll understand a little soon, then a little more and a little more as the years go by. Then one day, we'll be fishing out at Salem Lake and I'm just going to look at him and say, ‘Thomas, you saved my life.'"

■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.