Community Hero 2007
Noah Baderman
Noah turns six this year and is as cute as a button with eyes that sparkle brightly when he smiles. He enjoys reading with his parents and playing games with his siblings (including his twin brother Nate) and cousins. Pizza is his favorite food, hands down. Noah loves trains, too, which largely explains his fascination with the children’s TV show, Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. His four-legged canine buddies, KC and Daisy, are two of his cherished companions. Noah’s brilliant sense of humor “keeps his family laughing all the time.”
Noah lives with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), one of the most complex cardiac disorders seen in newborns whereby the left side of the heart doesn’t develop properly. It is almost certainly one of the most challenging to manage of all congenital heart defects.
For Noah, HLHS has meant numerous catheters, six months of carrying around an IV pack, seizures, low tone cerebral palsy, and a heart transplant. Being in the hospital a lot and missing school are some of his toughest challenges, according to his mother, Melinda.
Along the way Noah has enjoyed meeting great doctors, race car drivers, baseball players – even Darth Vader. And he keeps fighting, especially when it gets hard. “Noah is a champion. He gets up every day, plays and runs around, and just lives. His strength has taught our whole family never to give up,” states his mother. “Noah doesn’t ever doubt that he will do just fine.”
