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January 20, 2008

Baby Finn’s family finds hope in faith

By Michelle Martin

ASSISTANT EDITOR

When Fintan Shiltz’s parents got the phone call a little after midnight Dec. 26, it was the Christmas gift they had been waiting for.

Their youngest child, born Sept. 18, would get the new heart he needed to survive.

But Mark and Gina Schiltz knew their gift came with an incredible price: another family had lost their baby on Christmas Day.

So the Schiltzes did what they have been doing since before Finn was born: they prayed, in hope and thanksgiving for their son, and in compassion for a family they will most likely never know.

“I feel for them,” Mark Schiltz said. “We thought Fintan was going to die the day after he was born. That terror grips your heart. What a generous gift. What a courageous and brave decision they made.”

Fintan Schiltz was born Sept. 18 at Delnor-Community Hospital in Geneva after a picture-perfect pregnancy. He has an older brother and three older sisters, all of whom enjoy robust good health.

Signs of trouble

But within hours, it became clear that something was wrong. In the middle of that first night, Fintan was diagnosed with aortic stenosis, meaning that the walls of the aorta were thick and stiff as it left the heart. The aorta — the main artery to carry blood to the rest of the body — had such a narrow opening that the heart could not pump enough blood out.

Early the next morning, Fintan was flown by helicopter to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park. Doctors tried to open the aorta with a balloon angioplasty, but it didn’t work, and Fintan was put on the waiting list for a heart transplant.

“I was really in shock,” said Gina Schiltz. We didn’t know the gravity of it until we got to Children’s. I don’t think I even thought straight for the first week.”

For three months, his parents stayed by his side. Mark, a lineman for the city of Geneva, used up his sick time and his vacation time. Coworkers started donating their accrued sick time to allow him to keep taking time off work. Gina, who normally home-schools the older children, made time to get home at least every other day, never spending more than two days at a stretch away from Fintan or away from Cecilia, 8; Savanna Rose, 6; Leo, 4; and Neve, 2.

“We had a strong faith before, and we pray the rosary a lot as a family,” Gina Schiltz said. “I would pray the rosary and it would calm me. It got easier as we went. At some point, you just have to put it in God’s hands.”

Mark’s parents, Tom and Eileen Schiltz, stepped in to care for the older children, who came to Children’s Memorial to visit their baby brother on Sundays.

“They were very sweet and accepting,” Gina said. “They have such a pure faith.”

It was important for the clan to spend time with Fintan, Mark said, because while the doctors and nurses were doing everything they could to care for his body, his family had to care for his spirit.

“We’ve always had time to invest in little Finn, for him to know he’s not alone,” Mark said in a telephone interview. “He’s a little person. He knows our voices. He knows our loving touch.”

Active members of St. Patrick Parish in St. Charles, the family always has relied on faith. When they arrived at Children’s, Mark called his uncle, a Vincentian brother at nearby DePaul University, who brought a priest to baptize Fintan.

Through it all, the Schiltzes said, people have come forward to give them what they need, from dinners dropped off three times a week by members of the parish’s Agape group to prayers to gas station gift cards.

Why?

“Why does God allow this? It’s a wake-up call as to who’s really in charge,” Mark Schiltz said. “People have risen to the occasion supporting us. It shows people’s generosity and compassion toward a family in need.”

When the family heard that Cardinal George would visit the hospital on Christmas Day, the Schiltzes asked if he could bless their son, though the cardinal generally did not visit the neonatal ICU.

Fintan remained on a heart-lung bypass machine for more than a week, far longer than is usually necessary, but was taken off Jan. 4 and now is holding his own.

Mark Schiltz, who lost a sister to leukemia in 1989, said he and his parents know that a tragedy can destroy a marriage and a family, or make it stronger. He and Gina are relying on their faith to draw them closer to one another and to God.

“There’s been a lot of tears, but a lot of joy, too,” he said. “It’s in the fact that we still have our little Fintan when 20 years ago we wouldn’t have had him. It’s in knowing that even though he’s giving us just a tiny sliver of his cross, knowing that he’s here with us, he’s using us as a tool for his greater glory. I don’t mean to sound arrogant. It’s just that sometimes he uses ordinary things.”