An Eagle Valley 12-year-old and 3 generations of his family will ride to support the hospital that saved his life
Over the last 12 years of participation, the Darquier family has raised over $90,000 for the cardiac wing of Children's Hospital Colorado
Delfina Darquier/Courtesy photo
Then-pregnant Delfina Darquier remembers feeling an unsettling suspicion when doctors requested a second fetal echocardiogram for her son 12 years ago.
“It made me think at that point they’d seen something that was not quite right,” the Edwards resident recalled earlier this week.
“Big surprise when he was born.”
The surprise could be taken two ways. Her son, Owen Parham, had been born with four congenital heart defects and would need a life flight to Denver immediately. The second surprise — or at least ultimate blessing: he survived.
“If it wasn’t for the hospital, Owen wouldn’t be alive,” her mother recalled.
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Spurned on by the suggestion of a nurse, Denise — who fell in love with Owen during his initial visit to Children’s Hospital Colorado — the family has celebrated their son’s health and given back to the institution largely responsible for it by riding their bikes around the famed Copper Triangle loop every July.
“She said, ‘Hey you guys should ride the Courage Classic;’ we’re like, ‘OK’ and we’ve been all in,” Darquier said.
“And we really got sucked into it. We feel it’s a great way to give back. Owen’s about to turn 12, so this is going to be the 12th year doing it.”
Adding to the specialness is the fact that Darquier’s father, Manuel, will be visiting from his native Argentina and riding with Owen on Saturday’s 12-mile option from Copper to the Black Lakes rest stop and back for the second straight year.
“I’m glad to do it and I wanted to do it,” the 80-year-old said. “It’s just doing something together with the whole family, but especially with the kid.”
“We barely get to see him,” Owen added when asked about one reason the afternoon is so special. “It’s the one time a year.”
Three generations will take part. Delfina — who was born in Argentina but met her husband, Ian Parham (who is from England) while the pair worked as ski instructors in Andorra before relocating to the valley in 1994 — will chaperone the shorter route.
“It’s a huge age gap so I try to keep an eye on everybody and make sure they can all do it,” she laughed. “It’s interesting, but fun.”
Manuel is a bike enthusiast, but an increased collective road rage from motor vehicle drivers has made the activity unsafe in his bike-pathless homeland. Thus, he relishes the chance to be in Vail, and isn’t concerned about the altitude.
“It doesn’t matter my physical state — it’s just, if I want to go there, I will go there,” he said. Even at 80, he plays soccer weekly.
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“He doesn’t want to give it up,” his daughter laughed. “He can’t move on Mondays, but he still does it every Sunday.”
At least one member of the family (Darquier’s husband this year) always does the full 83-mile Copper Triangle during the two-day event. Many close friends, such as Kristina Bruce and Jim Giuliano and their families, have ridden with the crew in the past. Overwhelmed with gratitude toward their donors, the Darquiers have raised over $90,000 for the cardiac wing of the hospital in their 12 years of participation. They reached their $10,000 goal already this year, but can receive donations through Aug. 20.
“Unless you have a kid that has health issues that you can’t take care of up in the valley, you don’t realize how lucky we are to have a facility so close to us,” she said.
“There’s so many families that fly from over the country, and for us it’s a two-hour drive.”
Owen, whose first open heart surgery came at six days old and second was at just nine months, has returned for annual checkups in preparation for a post-growth-spurt third operation.
He was born with a hole in the heart between the upper chambers, known as atrial septal defect (ASD). He also had bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), meaning his aortic valve only had two leaflets instead of three. Finally, there was stenosis of the aorta and aortic arch.
A Ross procedure was performed to replace his diseased aortic valve, on the left side, with his pulmonary valve, located on the right side. Now, the left side is working as good as it can be, but the synthetic valve on the right obviously hasn’t commensurately grown with the rest of his heart, and needs to be replaced.
“It’s already too small, but he can still live with it, and they just try to extend that surgery as far as they can,” Delfina explained.
‘Live with it,’ might be understating the vigor with which Owen approaches his world. The Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy student is one of the fastest skaters on his Vail Mountaineers Pee Wee team — his favorite sport — and enjoys snowboarding, biking, skateboarding and math.
“I just don’t really think much about it,” Owen said when asked about the source of his eternal energy. “I just think that I’m like everyone else — normal — that I don’t have anything wrong.”
Indeed, the 12-year-old is pretty typical. Competitive, full of friends; his favorite part of the Courage Classic is getting to the turnaround so he can grab a snack and go downhill. He wouldn’t say no to a pro hockey career but is not set on his future, and his main focus this summer is saving up money to buy a new computer.
“Ours works but,” he said before a brief, unsatisfied exhale known to mothers of boys worldwide.
“…it’s kind of slow at times.”
“He has no limits,” his mom emphatically added.
Owen’s optimistic approach to life has impacted his grandpa, who believes his grandson’s tendency to savor each day is instinctive to anyone born who has experienced a life-threatening health scare.
“They have a feeling that today, maybe they will pass away — you never know how long life will be — so what they want to do is, ‘I want to do everything,’ and that’s what (Owen) is doing, subconsciously,” Manuel said.
“Of course you see life in a different way now. You don’t know what can happen with him, so this is for me something very special,” he continued, adding that it’s strengthened their bond immensely.
“My relationship with him is different than with the other nine grandsons or daughters I have.”
Through the years, Delfina’s thankfulness for both support from donors and Children’s Hospital Colorado has only increased.
“We feel so lucky,” she said.
“When you get to the hospital for the first time, you feel sorry for yourself — and then you see things that are so much worse than what you’re going through. It puts things in perspective for sure. You realize how fragile life can be.”
