Madison’s Heart Story

Maddy on the Waterslide

As told by her mom Patricia.

Diagnosis: Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome
At: 17 weeks

Back in 1999, I found out that my daughter, Madison, had a congenital heart defect after I had a sonogram at week 17 of my pregnancy. My doctor suspected something was wrong because he was unable to see and measure all four chambers of the baby’s heart. He immediately made an appointment for me to see a Pediatric Cardiologist who confirmed a congenital heart defect. To say my husband and I were in shock would be a drastic understatement. I am one of eight children and all of my siblings have had healthy children and we have no history of heart defects in either my family or my husband’s.

During my pregnancy, I continued to see the pediatric cardiologist for a monthly echo-cardiogram (this is sort of like a sonogram, but the main focus is the baby’s heart) and these are still Madison’s doctors today.

Within the first week of learning about the congenital heart defect we started making plans

Maddy at the Walk for CHD

for the corrective surgeries and were lucky enough to be able to get in touch with Dr. Norwood. We met with the surgeons in advance and they explained what needed to be done and when. Madison had three surgeries – one at birth, one at six months, and one just after her first birthday.

Madison is now 10 years old. She takes daily, preventative, medications and we see the cardiologist every three months. Some kids with a congenital heart defect will see the cardiologists less often, like once or twice a year – it depends on the severity of the defect. Madison leads a full and active life…she doesn’t let anything slow her down, let alone stop her!

~Patricia, July 2009