“I’m the parent of a child born with congenital heart disease. One in 110 children, 40,000 children born each year are born with some form of it, my son being one of them. The disease affects many, the outcomes are different but the common thread is strength and love. This is my story, this is our story. It is a world where parents kiss their children and pray with everything …show more content…
After a baby is born symptoms usually occur at birth or very soon afterwards. Infants with TAPVR can have a bluish color of the skin called cyanosis, because their blood does not carry enough oxygen into the heart and lungs. Infants with TAPVR can have symptoms such as: frequent respiratory infections, increasing difficulty breathing resulting from fluid buildup in the pulmonary edema known as the lungs, weak pulse, pounding heart, breathing problems, poor feeding, poor growth, extreme sleepiness, or rapid breathing. Infants will also have low blood pressure and acid buildup in the blood due to an inability to pump significant amounts of oxygen or produce nutrient rich blood to the body. Sometimes, infants may initially be thought to have pneumonia or another respiratory disease, until an accurate cardiac diagnosis is made. Using a stethoscope, a doctor will often hear a heart murmur known as an abnormal whooshing sound that is caused by blood flowing through the atrial septal defect. Some babies with TAPVR also have obstruction which is also known as narrowing of the vessels bringing blood from the pulmonary veins back to the right atrium, with two major consequences. One major consequence is the returning blood to the heart being impaired, compromising the heart’s ability to pump enough blood to the body also known as low cardiac output. The obstruction causes a backup of blood flow through the veins, which leads …show more content…
The surgical mortality is less than 5% when repair is performed electively, in relatively healthy children without obstructive pulmonary veins. If this condition is not treated, the heart will get larger, leading to heart failure. Repairing the defect early provides excellent results if there is no blockage of the pulmonary veins at the new connection into the heart. Infants who have obstructed veins have worse survival rates. Possible complications are difficulty breathing, heart failure, irregular and/or fast heart rhythms, lung infections, possible DVT also known as a blood clot after surgery, and pulmonary hypertension. The surgical mortality is higher when surgery is performed emergently on critically ill newborns with obstructed pulmonary venous return. This is because they are very sick before going into surgery. Critically ill newborns who do survive the surgery may require a prolonged period of post-operative intensive care. They often are on a ventilator for an extended time as their lungs recover. The long term outcome after surgical repair of total anomalous pulmonary venous return can occur late following surgery. Regular follow ups by a qualified cardiologist is essential to detect these problems early, if they occur. Rarely, obstruction to one or more pulmonary veins can develop. This can occur at the site of surgical repair, or due to abnormalities of the pulmonary veins themselves. Such