Surgery on Babies??

My son was diagnosed at birth with a hole in his heart and PDA (patent ductus arteriosis). He underwent the Cardiac catherization surgery when he was 3 1/2 years old. They sent a line up his main artery in his leg and used an item that kinda looks like a corkscrew pasta to twist the flaps of the heart together. The heart will eventually grow around it and heal itself. He went for his post checkups and everything has been great since. He is now an energetic 8 year old boy. It is definitely a stressful time but you will get through it. Are you definitely sure that they are going to crack the chest or is it possible to get the type of surgery my son had. It is not quite so evasive. If you have any more questions feel free to contact me. Good Luck and God Bless.

Hi J.,

My son was born with a heart defect (COA, ASD & VSD) that required Open Heart surgery when he was 4 days old. It is very upsetting to think of what the surgery consists of. It's amazing how quickly they recover from such an ordeal. We were bringing him home 3 weeks after the surgery. We lived in Boston at the time and he had his surgery at Children's Hospital. He is now 2 1/2 and doing wonderful. You would never know what he has been through by looking at him. I hope everything goes well for your son. Good Luck!

Hi J.,
I understand your concern about your son having surgery at such a young age. My son had to have surgery when he was 6 months old as he was born with hypospadius. For weeks I was so worried before the surgery and I was a nervous wreck when it came the day of. But he was just fine after it was done and over with. He even started doing patty cake when he was coming off of the anestesia! My best advice to you, is to listen to your doctor- he most likely knows what he's doing and to also keep in mind that children heal very quickly, they are very resilent. I hope this helps! -D.

J.,

St. Joseph's is a wonderful hospital. They are there to tend to your every whim even if you think it may be dumb for asking or what they will take care of your little one. My son was born with a lot of problems and he has had 2 surgeries. One at All Childrens in St Pete and the latest in St Joseph's in Tampa. (He will be 17 months in Nov.) They(as much as this sound crazy) made us feel at home. They came when we called about any little thing that was bothering us about his care or comfort. They even changed our room to a larger one so we would feel more comforable while we were there. We ended up having to stay for 2 weeks and go back to the hospital for weekly check ups with our doctor in out-patient surgery. ( They had to put him under to make sure everything was working ok. They will do everything they can to ensure his safety and comfort under the circumstances. Good luck and you will be in our prayers.

Not to worry to much dear, my little 2 month preemie had open heart surgery 5 days after he was born, and he came through it with flying colors, it seems the more risk is the older you get for these things, babies bodys are more resilient when it comes to drastic surgeries, my little guy is doing perfect still, you'd never know that anything happened to him !!!My cousin went to the same place that you mentioned above, and she says they were awesome when they worked on her son. Just keep your head up, things will work out fine !!!

Our daughter has had a fes surgeries and is getting ready to have brain surgery.
I agree that you seek a second opinion. Our cardiologist here said our daughter's heart was normal. He was way off! She has two heart conditions. She has bilateral SVC and her aorta is wired wrong. We got those diagnoses from a second cardiologist. Our daughter had to have a port put in and the surgeon noticed something was wired wrong and that's when we went to another cardiologist. I love St. Joseph's hosptial. Our dd has been there over 14 times. We have been to TGH once and All Children's a few times.....I like ACH also. We are going to Miami's Children's Hospital next month for her brain surgery. God bless you and your child.

J.,

God bless you, I know you are extremely frightened and worried for your little one. My daughter was born with the same heart condition, however, hers did close on its own between the age of 1 and 2 sometime. Our doctor had also told us it was a very common procedure, however, that did not help calm me. Maybe consider a second opinion? When our daughter was born, she had a few major conditions, and I seeked second opinions on a few procedures that were needed. Not that I was doubting them needing to be done, but I needed someone else to explain to me, and it helped to hear from somebody else that is was routine, and very common. Just a little reassurance for us.

When you say Tampa, if you mean Tampa General or All Childrens in St.Pete, my daughter spent time at both of them. I loved the staff there, and always felt comfortable. (As comfortable as possible in that situation). They went out of their way to help us in so many other aspects.

Good luck to you, and hang in there. Your little man needs Mommy as strong as she will ever be for this. If you ever need someone to talk to, you may email me at ____@____.com .

Now i would have to look up the medical data to give you the exact name of what my daughter was diagnosed with. what i do know for sure was that she had a heart murmer and upon further investigation the doctors had found a hole in her heart along with problems with her kidneys. she was 6 months old when all of this was discovered. i was told that the hole was a normal thing and should have closed up on its own. but after a few months of my daughter turning blue and stopping breathing and going to the er twice a month they decided that doing the surgery was more important than waiting for her to get a bit older.

now i lived in colordao at the time of all this and now i am in miami but i hear all these stories about these infants having what sounds similiar to my daughters problem but them all having to have open heart surgery. that baffles me because my daughter did not have that. she went in for day surgery when she was nine months old. the made a small cut in her groin area and put a small mesh ballon type thing in her heart as a patch. her muscle tissue was able to grow over the balloon and make her heart complete. since then she has been very active. in fact the day after her surgery was the first time i had seen her up and about with rosy cheeks since she had been born. it was like a miracle. no recovery time. everything was immediate. it was just a simple procedure. maybe it something you need to ask about.

the thing they implanted in her is called a Amplatzer Septal Occluder. we carry a card with us in case she needs to go to the hospital. this way the doctors know immediately what they are dealjng with and what they can and can not do. like i said before i am not sure if your chilkd had the excat same thing that my child did but this was so much easier than open heart surgery that i wanted to share it with you. i dont know if this was helpful but i hope it was. good luck in whatever happens. and if you have any more questions please feel free to ask.

J.,

My son will be 10 months old on the 29th. He was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. Basically it has 4 different components but one being a large VSD. He was diagnosed when he was just 3 days old and was sent home on an Apnea/heart monitor. He saw the cardiologist regularly and when he went in at 3 months they decided to schedule a consult for us with a surgeon at St. Josephs. We met with Dr. Paul Chai and we absolutely loved him and his very personal as well as perfessional demeaner. Dr. Chai wanted to schedule surgery for as soon as possible and we ended up leaving there with a surgery date of May 2nd.

My son was a few days over 4 months on May 2nd when he had his open-heart surgery. Thankfully when they went in there his CHD (congenital heart defect) wasn't nearly as complex as they originally thought and they ended up patching his large VSD and stitching up several smaller holes. He was released from St. Josephs after 4 days and came home with a residual VSD, which he still has. They don't suspect he'll need any further surgeries however he still has a VSD and has to see the cardiologist periodically.

This was a very frightening experience but St. Josephs is a wonderful hospital and these kind of repairs are very common, more so than you'd think. Nothing anyone will say can completely easy your nerves but just trust that everything will be okay, because it will! The 4 days my son was in the hospital was very hard. He was uncomfortable and seeing him with 2 IVs, central line, chest tube, pacer wires and other random equitment attached to him was scary. Once everything was done and 8 weeks had lapsed and we were able to pick him up under his arms again, everything was back to normal for us!

If you need a source of moral support or would like to speak with someone about what you are going through feel free to email me! I have plenty of pictures of my son's scar, which may impress you... it's nearly invisable at just 5 months post op! I also have pictures of his hospital stay but I'd rather not share those with you because they look a lot worse than the situation actually was. I can't even bare to look at them without crying.

God bless you and your son! Keep praying, God preforms miracles!! I pray every night that he'll continue to keep my son healthy and safe and close up his residual VSD. :)

____@____.com

Take Care!
H.