Zachary's Heart Story
| Told by his mother Krissy.
Diagnosis: Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome & Contraction of the Aorta Our story begins when I was 18 weeks pregnant. My OB called me at work and said that something didn’t look right with Zachary’s heart. Panic took over. I immediately set up an appointment with the high risk doctor that she suggested. After seeing him the same day I got the news from her, they still weren’t 100% sure that there was a big problem. I was then referred to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia satellite office. We met with the cardiologist and he told us what the diagnosis was. We then went over to the Fetal Heart Program at the hospital for more ultrasounds. After the diagnosis, although I was scared, I kept up my hope. We decided to have my son at the hospital in NJ. The NICU team was in the delivery room when he was born due to the situation. I did get to hold him for a brief couple of seconds before he was whisked away to the NICU until transport came for him. He was on a heart monitor in the NICU and they put in belly lines to administer the meds. Other than that, he looked like a normal, healthy baby. About 7 hours after he was born, he was transferred over to the hospital in Philadelphia. My husband went over with him and stayed the night. I was discharged the following day and went to be with my son. This was my first pregnancy so I was nervous about everything anyway. I didn’t place blame on anyone. Of course at first I thought it was something that I did. I had dental x-rays taken before I found out that I was pregnant. After a lot of talk with the doctors, it was determined that there was nothing that I did to cause this issue and that for reasons still unknown, Zach’s heart just didn’t form properly. Up until 18 weeks, my pregnancy was great. After the diagnosis I was at a zillion doctors appointments and had a very stressful pregnancy. In the end, all the stress that I had to go trough paid off in the end. I just wish that I had had another heart parent to talk to while I was going through all of this. |
~Krissy, July 2009 |