Westminster community members send 9-year-old hundreds of get well cards

WESTMINSTER — The walls of 9-year-old Lyle’s bedroom are completely covered with get well cards, a thoughtful outpouring from the greater community in the midst of his health issues.

Lyle recently had open heart surgery — two pulmonary veins moved — as a result of a congenital heart defect called partial anomalous pulmonary venous return. While his recovery will be long, the cards and words of encouragement on them are bringing him a lot of joy.

“We are so grateful for the cards and packages,” his mom Mallory said of her third grader, adding that he must have over 200 cards so far that have been mailed to their Westminster home.

He has enjoyed getting cards from his friends, classmates, seniors in town, even strangers. He especially appreciates the care packages he received from two teenage girls, one from Winchendon and one from Ashburnham, the latter being a young lady who Mallory said Lyle has “a special bond with.”

“They sent him a special package and the other in person gave it to him,” she shared. “These you could tell really meant something special to Lyle, like he’s not alone and he’s special.”

During the pandemic when Lyle was 4, they thought he had COVID-19, so they kept him home from preschool. He rapidly declined with high fevers so on day five, they brought him to get checked by a doctor, who ran some tests.

“They said they didn’t know and to bring him to the hospital if he got worse, which he did,” Mallory recalled. “As a result, I brought him to UMass in Worcester where he was admitted and sent to the ICU.”

It was there he was treated for MIS — multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a rare, serious condition where different body parts become inflamed, typically occurring after a COVID infection.

While there they informed them that Lyle’s heart was affected and they found an atrial septal defect, a hole in the wall between the heart’s two upper chambers, which allows oxygen-rich blood to leak from the left side to the right, stressing the heart and lungs.

“Since then, we were followed by the cardiologist — every three months then six months then a year — and then they found a second hole,” Mallory said.

That’s when she transferred Lyle to a cardiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, who kept an eye on him and who assured Mallory that when her son was old enough to have a cardiac MRI without sedation, he would.

“At age 8 he had the MRI and we were told this could be fixed with a catheterization procedure, that they didn’t think open heart surgery would be necessary. So that’s what we did,” Mallory said. “During this procedure, because they could see better, this is when they found that he actually had three to four holes as well as PAPVR with two veins connecting wrong. They stopped the procedure and informed us he needed open heart surgery.”

With PAPVR, some, but not all of the pulmonary veins carrying oxygen-rich blood from the lungs connect to the wrong part of the heart, usually the right atrium or a large vein, instead of the left atrium. This causes the oxygenated blood to recirculate through the lungs and right side of the heart, leading to extra blood flow to the lungs which can cause symptoms like shortness of breath, fatigue and respiratory issues.

His Jan. 7 surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital went smoothly and Mallory said Lyle’s medical care team there — including his surgeon Dr. Christopher Baird — “were wonderful.”

“We have a follow-up to confirm everything, but the surgeon seemed confident all went well and all was fixed,” Mallory relayed. “Since being released Lyle has improved amazingly every day. He keeps progressing and should be back to school in just one more week with clearance from his cardiologist with some restrictions but that’s alright. Restrictions only for six weeks.”

Although he’s home recuperating and doing very well, Mallory said her son’s surgery day “was the longest day of my life hands down.”

“Time dragged and my anxiety was of course high, but the team was wonderful, calling each of us — Lyle’s father and myself — each step. They called when the breathing tube was inserted, they called to inform me when his heart was on the bypass machine, and again when they took him off things and finished. Hearing your child isn’t breathing on his own and his heart isn’t beating on its own is probably one of the most heart wrenching things a mom could hear, but my sons life was literally in the hands of someone else. I couldn’t help him.

“Then to see your baby in a bed with IVs, tubes and still asleep just takes the wind from you,” the Ashburnham native continued. “Him not being able to get out of the bed to use the bathroom, not being able to stand and being constantly given medication’s for pain management — not the way any mom wants to see their kid.”

She remembers asking her boyfriend, who she said, “is amazing,” the night before the surgery if she was doing the right thing because what if something went wrong.

“Of course, he reassured me that this had to be done, and done only to benefit Lyle,” Mallory said.

She is thankful for the support she has felt from him and her sister and parents, who have helped “distract at times,” and Lyle’s dad and his dad’s girlfriend and Lyle’s older brother, 17-year-old Jack, have all been there every step of the way.

Mallory reported that Lyle said he “already feels better” and is breathing stronger and walking farther each day.

“He says he’s going to be unstoppable because he was already pretty good,” she said of her youngest son.

When asked what she appreciates about members of the community rallying around Lyle and her family with all the nice cards, Mallory said it means the world to them.

“My son was scared, confused and not thrilled to be away from his friends for an extended amount of time but the community at school, strangers, friends onlin, and everyone from the Westminster Senior Center made Lyle feel good, plain and simple,” she said. “Made him know he was loved and being thought about not forgotten, it brought many smiles to my boy’s face and for that I’m eternally grateful. Overall, we are more private, not putting everything out there for others to know about us, so I had hesitation sharing our story because I didn’t want the pity per say but the support for Lyle has been nothing short of heartwarming.”

One final thing she’d like to share is that they are “incredibly lucky.”

“Lyle went in for surgery and he came home,” Mallory said. “There were other kids there, one in particular he’s been there over a year. He looked about my son’s age. I don’t know his name or where he was from, but I do know he was waiting on a heart transplant. So to always keep these kids in our thoughts and remember that people may be dealing with things that we are unaware of — kindness goes a long way.”