OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, April 29, 2009 · 4 Family supports bridge to life n By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF It gave them another year with their son and now two Oakville parents want to make sure a very special life-saving device is used to help other children in need. Saif Satter and Rafia Saif are holding a fundraiser on Tuesday, May 5, to support the continued use of the Berlin Heart life support system at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Their reasons are deeply personal, rooted in an unimaginable loss. "The best thing I think that everyone remembers about him is that he was full of life no matter what," said Rafia. "There were days when he was in extreme pain, we could see that he was in pain, but he would still smile." In September 2007, Satter and Rafia's twoyear-old son Sumair, an avid fan of Barney the Purple Dinosaur and Backyardigans, was taken to hospital suffering from flu-like symptoms. X-rays followed eventually leading to a diagnosis of Cardiomyopathy, a serious disease, which causes the heart muscle to become inflamed and not work as well as it should. Sumair's condition quickly deteriorated with an initial seven-day stint in hospital turning into months. SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER IN THEIR HEARTS: Sumair Saif and his toy Pablo from The Backyardigans. Whenever Sumair had surgery, he took Pablo with him. Soon his parents were faced with the situation no parent wants to be in, to try for a heart transplant or to let their son pass away. "You can't express these things in words, this is something no parent wants to hear about their kids," said Satter, Sumair's father. "Nobody wants to hear anything like that, they want everything to be okay, but that's life, you have to just take it." In the end, Satter and Rafia decided to put Sumair on a transplant list, but given the severity of his condition there was great doubt he would survive the wait. This is where the Berlin Heart came in. The Berlin Heart is what is known as a ventricular assist device, which works by helping the right ventricle of the heart pump blood to the lungs while simultaneously helping the left ventricle pump blood to the body. This device was implanted in Sumair and kept him alive for two months until a heart became available. The transplant that followed was a success with Sumair pulling through the procedure as well as all the gruelling follow-up treatment. Despite this victory, a March 2008 homecoming was cut short when Sumair began suffering from respiratory problems. n See Sumair's page 12