I Gotta Kid With a Fixable Heart Problem--July 2012
Dear Everyone,
You need to see this guy. I will post his picture tomorrow. Promise. (See above.)
Woodson is a three year old boy who lives here in Port-au-Prince.
I examined Woodson for the first time in February in the pediatric clinic in Cite Soleil. He has a loud heart murmur because he has a hole in the wall separating the lower chambers of his heart. This hole is called a ventricular septal defect (VSD). And because he has this abnormal opening blood rushes from the left ventricle through this hole and lands in the right ventricle creating audible turbulence, i.e. the murmur.
Congenital heart disease afflicts 1% of newborns worldwide and the most common defect is VSD.
Woodson's mother is a lovely intelligent gal and she brought him to clinic today. I examined him again and he seems ok. His heart is slightly enlarged because it is "working overtime". But the blood pressure in his lungs is fine.
I continued his furosemide 10 mg BID and gave him a quick course of anti-worm medication and a vitamin with iron.
His sickle test is negative and his HIV is pending…will have results tomorrow.
Woodson needs heart surgery to patch the hole. This surgery cannot be done safely in Haiti today. Someday this surgery will be available to the Woodsons of Haiti, but that day has not yet arrived. And our Woodson can only wait so long.
I have his echocardiogram at home in Illinois and would be glad to make a copy of the video and send it to anyone who has some influence with a good pediatric heart surgeon and pediatric medical center that would consider operating Woodson.
Thank you very much.
John A. Carroll, MD
haitianhearts@gmail.com
www.haitianhearts.org
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