Here are some Cardiac Patient Stories from the Saint Barnabas
Health Care System.
Shortly after baby Daniel came into the
world, doctors diagnosed pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular
septum. It is a life-threatening condition that requires
immediate intervention. Cardiologists and cardiac surgeons
at Children’s Heart Center at Children’s Hospital
of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center developed
an innovative minimally invasive treatment plan that combined
the use of existing surgical and cather-based techniques
to correct the blockage of blood flow between his heart and
lungs.
Pediatric cardiac surgeons opened Daniel’s tiny chest
to expose the front of his heart and the pulmonary artery.
They punctured the beating heart below the closed pulmonary
valve, then with transesophageal echocardiography to guide
their efforts, a needle was passed precisely through the
wall of the right ventricle and then across the malformed
valve. Interventional cardiologists then passed a soft guide
wire through the valve, following it with a balloon catheter
that opened the valve. The catheter was removed, and once
blood was pumping through the valve, the needle site in the
heart wall was closed with one stitch. The surgeons then
placed an aorta-to-pulmonary artery shunt in order to provide
an extra source of blood flow to the lungs – again
without having to stop Daniels’ heart.
After an additional “routine” cardiac catheterization
to further dilate the narrowed pulmonary valve and the right
pulmonary artery, Daniel continues to make good progress.
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