Young boy’s heart unites community

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006

Five-year-old Noah Rice was born with a broken heart.

The young man suffers from Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, in which the left side of the heart is underdeveloped. The syndrome can cause thickening of the blood and could result in a stroke or a heart attack, according to the American Heart Association.

Noah has undergone three open-heart surgeries to repair the defects, but doctors have concluded that he needs a heart transplant, which would cost upwards of $500,000.

Noah’s story reached New Market resident Debbie Williams, founder of the Patty Pollatos Fund, who organized an extravagant fundraiser to pay for the transplant and follow-up medication. The fund holds high-end fundraisers such as corvette raffles to help middle class families pay for unexpected medical bills.

Williams, who has pledged to pay for $100,000 of the operation, which is the amount of the family’s insurance co-pay, said she expects at least 5,000 people to attend, or purchase a raffle ticket for, the Family FUNomenon on Sept. 30.

If the raffle draws the maximum of 10,000 attendees, the profits would allow the organization to donate $10,000 to several major charities in Frederick County in addition to paying for Noah’s prescriptions and his insurance co-pay.

‘‘At the risk of sounding like a preacher, I know God wants us to do this,” Williams said. ‘‘The community should feel the same way. This family needs their help.”

Williams, who calls the boy ‘‘Lil’ Noah,” said a local newspaper article about his plight caught her eye several months ago when she was mulling causes her next fundraiser, a Harley Davidson-theme event with large cash door prizes.

‘‘Lil’ Noah’s a soft-spoken child with a certain quietness about him,” Williams said.

In addition to his father, Ike, an employee with Bloom grocery store who works overnight shifts, Noah’s family includes his mother, Carrie, a daycare provider for the YMCA, and brother Derek, 6. They are members of Calvary Assembly of God in Frederick.

‘‘We weren’t sure exactly what it was,” Ike Rice said recalling the day two weeks before Noah’s birth when the family learned of his syndrome. ‘‘But they told us that half his heart didn’t develop, and we knew it was serious.”

Six hours after his birth on April 23, 2001, at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, medical experts rushed the newborn to a hospital in Wilmington, Del., where he underwent his first surgery to reroute blood through his lungs and to the rest of his body.

Since Noah’s birth, the Rice family has traveled back and forth to Wilmington, where Noah’s transplant will be performed, for both minor and serious heart conditions.

The Woodsboro Elementary kindergartner enjoys playing baseball with his friends and video games and roughhousing with his older brother.

Noah recently joined the waiting list for a heart donation. He carries a pager that will alert the family that the organ is ready. Noah’s cardiologist at the hospital, Dr. Gina Baffa, calls Noah her ‘‘little sweetheart.” She said the average wait for a child’s heart is six to eight weeks and that Noah is lower priority because his situation is not crucially life threatening.

In addition to help from the Patty Pollatos Fund, the family has received an outpouring of donations from local fundraisers, such as a $5,000 donation from Renn Kirby Pontiac in Frederick after a $50-per-sold-car event in August, Ike Rice said.

‘‘Everybody is willing to help out, which is really great,” he said.