Heart Surgery for Lisa & Mark's Baby 💕

As soon as she is born, their baby needs life-saving surgery for 2 heart defects.

In June last year my lovely friend Lisa and her partner Mark got the news that they are expecting their first child together - a little girl and the last peice to the family Puzzle

Unfortunately, at their 20 week scan Lisa and Mark received the devastating news that their baby has 2 heart defects. The first defect is Coaracation of the Aorta which js narrowing of the major artery (the aorta) that carries blood to the body. Coarctation obstructs blood flow from the heart to the lower part of the body. Blood pressure increases above the constriction. The blood pressure is much higher than normal in the left pumping chamber (left ventricle) and the heart must work harder to pump blood through the constriction in the aorta. This can cause thickening (hypertrophy) and damage to the overworked heart muscle.

The second defect is atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD) is a heart defect in which there are holes between the chambers of the right and left sides of the heart, and the valves that control the flow of blood between these chambers may not be formed correctly. In AVSD, blood flows where it normally should not go. The blood may also have a lower than normal amount of oxygen, and extra blood can flow to the lungs. This extra blood being pumped into the lungs forces the heart and lungs to work hard and may lead to congestive heart failure.

Luckily, there is a surgical correction that can repair the holes which has a relatively high success rate. It is a specialist procedure not available in the South Island so Lisa and Mark will be travelling to Auckland at 37 weeks. The baby will go in for open heart surgery immediately after she is born to repair the defect. Following this they will have an extended stay in NICU while the baby recovers and is monitored.

Throughout this there will be ongoing costs - medical appointments, flights and accomodation to visit the fetal medicine team in Christchurch between now and February, and flights to Auckland when baby is due. Mark and Lisa will both need to take time off work so any financial support we can give will help to ease the burden.

No parent should have to go through such a stressful and upsetting time and these guys need all the love and support we can give them over the coming months. Please donate and share - spread the word so together we can help to make things a little bit easier for Lisa and Mark.

I have attached links to websites that fo into more detail about each condition.

http://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/congenital-heart-defects/about-congenital-heart-defects/coarctation-of-the-aorta-coa

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/heartdefects/avsd.html