Susan Tucker is Bearer of Olympic Torch on LocalNewsOnly.com

Colleyville Olympic Torch Bearer Dedicates Experience to Her Son

By Susan Tucker

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Colleyville on Hall Johnson Road

Dateline: Colleyville, Monday, December 24, 2001

COLLEYVILLE RESIDENT SUSAN TUCKER TELLS ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE

Tucker Family (before the latest addition Alexander)	What can I say, it was incredible! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The actual run (walk in my case) was over extremely fast. But what a rush it was with all the crowds cheering for you and people wanting your photo with the torch flame. Zach and I must have posed for at least 10 photos with kids we didn’t know for their parents. Everyone wanted a little piece of the experience for themselves! The crowds were awesome, everyone was so patriotic, chanting USA USA USA every few feet.
Susan and support runner Christine	There was a great turnout considering it rained earlier that morning. The torch run was delayed by about an hour, so by the time I carried the flame it was getting warmer and the sun was starting to shine. The Olympic sponsors, Coke and Chevrolet, did their part by setting up booths, passing out flags, giving away drinks, sending cheerleaders out into the crowds and sometimes into nearby businesses to pull people out to watch the parade. And what a parade it was.
The Official Torchbearer Corvette	There were all sorts of support vehicles, motorcycle escorts, and support runners accompanying the torchbearers. I almost got to carry the flame two segments as the torchbearer after me was very late in checking in. Our checkpoint location was the Ballpark at Arlington (the big huge new ball stadium) where the Olympic organizers declared it the nicest checkpoint location they’ve ever seen. (We met in the Gold Club!)
Passing the flame to the next torchbearer	As for news coverage, we found out afterwards that NBC carried my segment live on air around 1:00 pm. A friend had happened to tape her soap opera that day and saw me on the news when she watched it! The Fox medical reporter who did a story on us a year and a half ago updated his story with the torch relay that evening. He actually wired me with a microphone for the entire experience and I had my own personal FOX camera crew following me.
	As for the actual torch I carried, it is proudly sitting on the mantle waiting for Zach to take it to show and tell someday. Wouldn’t it be great if someday Zach got to carry the torch himself?
Publisher's Note	Susan Tucker dedicated her experience to Zachary, her 4 year old son born with heart problems. The following explains the courage of this family and Zachary. The information is from the Tucker family web site.
Zachary and friends waiting for Mom to carry the Olympic Torch by their front row observation point.	Zachary who was born on March 10th, 1998. Zachary was born with Unbalanced A-V Canal with Hypoplastic Left Ventricle, L-Loop and L-Transposition, Pulmonary Stenosis, Sub Pulmonic Stenosis, Dextrocardia with Situs Inversus, Bilateral Superior Vena Cava , Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV) and Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA). In layman's terms, Zach's heart was really messed up. Besides the problems with his arteries and veins, his heart was on the wrong side of his body (as well as his stomach, liver and spleen), rotated backwards, and the left side didn't develop enough. We were initially told our son would be born with HLHS - Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, but as he grew and developed his diagnosis changed. Since we found out about his conditions prenatally (17 weeks) we had 4 choices to choose from. 1) immediate termination 2) let the baby be born and do nothing (compassionate care) 3) heart transplant 4) three stage surgical repair. The statistics initially quoted to us were not encouraging. We chose the three stage surgical procedure and proceeded to research as much as we could about it. That is when we found the PDHeart group, and have been following the discussions periodically.

We decided to have the surgery with Dr. Edward Bove at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Due to some complications with her pregnancy (pre-eclampsia), Susan was flown up to Michigan from the Ft. Worth, Texas Maternal Fetal Specialist's office on February 19th and stabilized until Zachary could be born via c-section (breech baby!) on March 10th, two weeks earlier than his due date. He was a whopping 8lbs. 4 oz., with Apgars of 8 and 9. On the 16th, Zachary had a right-sided BT shunt and did wonderfully. He was released on the 19th and we flew home on the 20th. Zachary has since returned to Dr. Bove at the University of Michigan for his second surgeries, the Hemi-Fontan and Bi-Directional Glenn and for his third surgery, the Fontan. Both times he had relatively short hospitalizations and very minor if any complications. Since then, Zachary has been growing and developing quite normally. Zach, his little sister Savannah (5/10/99), and new little brother Alexander (11/19/01) are the joys of our lives. Zachary's life has far exceeded everything that we could have hoped for when we first learned about his heart conditions and possible disabilities. Most people just don't believe he has any problems at all.