Oakes Lee Ortyl Obituary

Good evening friends and family.  We wanted to let you all know that we have been working on an obituary for our little man.  Neither of us have done this before and were knocked on the floor when the first quote came back at over $1,000!!  We had NO IDEA it cost that much.  So I pared it down a bit and have something that works.  It will be running in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tomorrow (Thursday, June 14, 2012) and will have my favorite picture ever of Isla and Oakes.  Here is the text:

Oakes Lee Ortyl, 15 months old, passed peacefully into heaven while in the loving arms of his parents on June 6, 2012 at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri.  Oakes was born on March 10, 2011 in St. Louis at Barnes-Jewish Hospital with truncus arteriosus, a congenital heart defect and spent just 18 days at home.  Oakes endured many surgeries including two open-heart and a lung transplant.  He earned the nickname “Mighty” Oakes early in life after miraculous recoveries from conditions he was not expected to survive. 

The story of his strength, his courage, his passionate willingness to live and his intense love for his family and friends inspired thousands of people across the globe and led to the founding of Mighty Oakes Heart Foundation whose objective is to provide financial support to families coping with the traumatic reality of CHDs. 

Oakes is survived by his mama, Rebecca Ortyl, his papa, Greg Ortyl and his beloved big sister, Isla Patrina Ortyl; great-grandmother Patrina Ortyl of O’Fallon, MO; grandparents: Bill Fox and Jan Christine of Wilmington, NC, Connie and Dale Moore of Guthrie, OK and Greg and Mary Jane Ortyl of St. Louis, MO; and the rest of his extensive, loving family.  The family also wishes to recognize the tremendously talented, respected and deeply loved team of physicians, nurses and staff in the Cardiac ICU at SLCH.  In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family is humbly asking for donations to Mighty Oakes Heart Foundation at www.mightyoakes.org and for you to consider a donation of blood and/or registering for organ donation.  A memorial funeral service will be held this Saturday, June 16, 2012 at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Webster Groves, Missouri at 10:00 AM.