Our son, Will, was born with a heart murmur that the doctors assured us he would grow out of. When he was 5 and still had it, they sent us for an EKG that designated it as an 'innocent' murmur. When Will went back for his 12 year check up, the murmur was still there; so the doc sent us to a pediatric cardiologist. This photo is of the EKG done by Dr. Mart from Primary Children's Hospital. Dr. Mart was certain it was a 'normal' murmur, but sent us to have an echo cardiogram to be sure. We did that this morning.
They found that he has a small hole in his heart between the two upper chambers. This apparently is a hole that exists purposefully in-utero, but that closes soon after birth in most people. Will's did not fully close. Dr. Mart says this can be found in about 25% of adults! He is not concerned. He said it is not something that is operable and should not interfere with a normal life. The only worry is that people with this condition (he told me what it was called, but darn if I could remember or pronounce it!) have a higher risk of stroke.
I am glad to finally have a definitive and positive answer that can now close the book on this! So glad he is all right!
2 comments:
My sister, Andrea had this same condition. It did cause her to have a mini stroke when she was 30. You can have it repaired. She had an unbrella type device inserted through the artery in her leg and it closes it off and heals over with scar tissue. It is also highly related to migrains. She had them frequently before it was fixed and now no longer does.
Hi Kathy,
I don't know if you remember that I had heart surgery just after we moved into the ward, (I'd also had it previously at age 4) but it was for this same thing. Called Atrial Septum Defect or ASD for short. At least most of the repairs now are done with the balloon as same day surgery...it's good to get it fixed now instead of waiting. Good luck and let us know if we can do anything.
Jennye
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