By Jean Schlegel
Valley City Times-Record

Family, friends, and the Arthur, N.D., community are putting together a benefit for little Tyler Schroeder this weekend to help raise money for his mounting medical costs for a rare heart disease.
Kelly Johnson and Andrea Hoiland have played a key role in organizing the benefit, which is Sunday, Nov. 16, at Kelly’s Cafe in Arthur. Silent auction bidding begins at 11 a.m., and a free will pork sandwich meal is from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. A bake sale, sponsored by Arthur United Methodist Church is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Schroeder family has been on a roller coaster ride even before Tyler was born. Doctors knew of his heart problems at 20 weeks, and that is why his mother went to the Twin Cities five weeks before he was born for specialty care.
Tyler, who was born on Aug. 22 to Rob and Moe (Jewett) Schroeder, was diagnosed with a rare form of congenital heart disease, called hypoplastic right ventricle. Just four days after Tyler was born in the Twin Cities, he had to have open heart surgery. He also has a heart condition known as transposition of the great arteries, which means the pulmonary artery and the aorta artery are flip-flopped.
He now has three more surgeries ahead of him, with the next one on Dec. 5 at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital in Fairview.
“We just live day-by-day,” Tyler’s mother said. “Every day is a gift.”
Tyler’s mother, 29, said as far as they know, there are only two other babies in North Dakota with this same heart disease. It is only detected prenatally 50 percent of the time, according to his mother, and if it isn’t detected then, heart failure is possible.
She also said she listened to a man, who is now 29 and has lived with this same condition all his life, talk about it. He was a guest speaker at the Hypoplastic Right Heart convention in Bloomington, Minn., this summer. He lived by a saying that was on a magnet on the refrigerator while he was growing up. It said, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, that is why it’s called the present.” Moe Schroeder said she really believes in that.
Tyler, who weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces at birth, has been gaining weight and now weighs 13 pounds. The family is thrilled with that because babies with the heart disease Tyler has, often have trouble gaining weight because they get too tired to eat. He has also started sleeping through the night.
Tyler has a sister, Kasey, 10. Moe’s parents are Dirinda and Don Jewett, who live north of Valley City, and Rob’s parents are Linda and Bob Schroeder of Lisbon.

Moe and Rob Schroeder of Arthur with their 3-month-old son, Tyler, and 10-year-old daughter, Kasey. (submitted photo)