Monday, April 8, 2013

Diagnosis...

When we committed to Hannes, the medical information we had was that he had a VSD. That is a hole between the two ventricles in his heart. The entire time we have been working toward him, we felt an urgency to get him home - not just because he was an orphan, but also because we were thinking that there was more wrong with his heart than "just" a VSD.

Today, the pediatric cardiologist did an EKG and an ECHO of his heart. He has Tetralogy of Fallot. This is actually 4 distinct heart defects - which include his original diagnosis of VSD. It also includes an ASD, which is an Atrial Septal Defect, which is a hole between the two atria. These two holes are quite big in Hannes's heart. This can be offset by the pulmonary vessel going into his lungs being a bit narrowed, which would protect his lungs from too much blood flowing into the lungs. However, his isn't narrowed as much as the cardiologist would have liked.

This is more serious than can be handled at our local hospital, so we will be going to either UCLA or Children's Hospital of LA - both which are known for good pediatric cardiology care. Our next step is to go for a cardiac cath which will give the doctors information about the pressure in his heart and lungs. Depending on the results, the thought is that they will then do surgery to repair his heart - most likely this summer. He said they will want to do it before the next flu/RSV season.

Thank you for your prayers for Hannes and for us as we travel this road.


2 comments:

  1. So thankful you have him home and he can get the medical care he needs!

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  2. oh my! you were so right to feel that urgency and get him home ASAP.
    So happy he is your son and can receive medical care. He is just the cutest little guy!

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