Dad gets tattoo to match daughter’s heart surgeries scar

• Mike and Lauren Backe’s daughter Evie has a congenital heart condition that required surgery and continues to require surgeries and treatments.
• Mike and Lauren both got tattoos related to their daughter’s fight against congenital heart defects.
• Mike’s tattoo is a replica of their daughter’s zipper scar while Lauren’s is an EKG.

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There really is no limit to what parents will do for their children.

Mike and Lauren Backe have a 4-year-old daughter who has had 3 major open heart surgeries even before she turned one year old.

Everly or Evie to her parents suffers from a congenital heart defect.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 4 babies born have life-threatening congenital heart defects that need surgery and other procedures before they turn a year old. Causes for the condition are unknown and treatment would depend on the severity and type of the defect.

Evie has a scar on her chest that her family calls a “zipper” because that is where the doctors open and close for her to be better.

As she grew, she became conscious of her scar. As per her dad, Matt, “I heard Evie make mention about the zipper, just asking more questions than usual. My thought was if I could get something that was a replica of it, we could be zipper buddies and she would not have that feeling of being alone.”

And so, Matt got the support of a local tattoo artist and recreated Everly’s scar on his chest which Evie appreciates much. Evie said, “He didn’t want me to be alone. He wanted to be special like me.”

Now her big brother Jack would also want the same tattoo when he turns 18.  Mom also got a tattoo of EKG lines showing heart rate on her forearm with the first initials of Jack and Everly.

Lauren said, “We’ve had a lot of people [with congenital heart defects] reach out and say, ‘I had a scar growing up, and I used to cross my arms when I was at the pool because I was self-conscious about it. I could really relate to this.” She added, “We’ve been quite honestly blown away by all of the people reaching out and all of the support.”

Matt and Lauren Becke are speaking out about congenital heart defects to bring attention to the condition and hope that further research would be done on it.

Source: Good Morning America