Jim Larson

Jim Larson was born in 1950 with tetralogy of Fallot with partial transposition. He had a

Blalock-Taussig shunt placed in 1953 at University of California Medical Center but he

was still quite cyanotic and tired easily until at age 12 he had a ventricular septal defect

repair at University of Minnesota Hospital. He then became much more active thanks to

the good medical care he has had over the years. He has married, raised two daughters

and had a career as a field forester.  Following his surgery in 1962, Jim was able to be much more active. At his family’s lake cabin in the summers he would water ski and in the fall he’d hunt rabbits, ducks, pheasants and deer. He retired due to placement of an implantable Cardioverter defibrillator (or ICD) in 2006 but he continued to do forestry work on the side, as well as other work. Now he volunteers as a musician at his local hospital in the hospice program.